Accident of Time
by Tridentwatch
Summary: Naruto is transported into the future. Long chapters! COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: The Uzumaki Boy

1

Naruto ran on the hard cobbled streets where some of the cement had cracks and crevices running along the pavement: remnants of the wars that Konoha had participated in. The blonde haired, blue eyed boy pounded his legs hard against the wet streets as rain pounded on the hood of his orange slicker, creating the same sound of rain hitting rooftops. The sound of the pebble sized rain drops hitting against his orange jacket strangely comforted him, and the little comfort he could get in this cold freezing rain amid shouts from the village mob chasing after him, looking ready to kill him, he was thankful for.

He sped down a side alley. Konoha was built without a plan of urban housing, and it had evolved as more people migrated from various lands to live within the richness of Konoha's city-village gates, protected from the harsh world outside by ninja, highly skilled. What was different about Konoha that made it a great place to live was that it was welcoming. Everybody cared about each other, lighting up people's day with happy smiles of friendship and carefree camaraderie. Only Naruto was the exception. Even foreigners (flatlanders they were called) were treated better than Naruto, who was quite famous in the village despite the fact that the Hokage had made it an S-class secret to talk about the Kyuubi living inside the boy.

Only Naruto felt like he was an outsider, alienated and hated from his village. The village Pariah ran down the alleyways where he had never been before. In Konoha there were so many sprawling alleys and pathways, it was a maze barely navigatable. The villagers, old, forty year old men, burly and strong, and women, some kuniochi even, some who had lost their husbands and children in the war against the Kyuubi no Kitsune, chased after him and what was worse was that they knew this place. They knew how to transverse the maze, and for Naruto, it was his worst day. What bad luck, he thought, why did I ever try to go in the Red Scorpion?

The Red Scorpion was a ninja restaurant that served everyone and anyone, and didn't ask any questions. They even served children who had not even been made genin. Well, Naruto, barely ten years old, had been invited by Inuzaka Kiba, Chouji, and a few others to go with them and in his naivitie he did so.

They were halfway through the meal when Naruto finally noticed the people in the restaurant had ceased talking and were openly staring at him with the same pure utter looks of loathing he had encountered from most adults in the village. Hate was a powerful emotion, but it also bred caution and animalistic cunning. Naruto had concentrated on eating his food, quite good if he said so himself, and when the bill came, nobody said anything. The genin all just paid and wanted to get out of there, because the students had all noticed the stares which were directed at Naruto and they all felt uncomfortable.

Naruto was the last one to leave, but before he could, a hand stopped him. Grizzled, wrinkly, old. It belonged to a balding white bearded man with yellow teeth and bright white spots over pinkish swollen gums. Sunken black eyes that watered constantly, or at least the left one did. The right one had a diagonal scar that ran along the nose, ending in a loop from ear to ear like a necklace.

"You!" The old man said, "What's your name, boy?" The entire restaurant was quiet and they were all staring at him, foreheads scrunched up in disapproval and barely restrained anger. Still, they respected the old man, and let him have his say.

"Um, Uzumaki Naruto, sir," The demon container said as he looked back and forth in nervous fear. "What's yours?"

The man gave him a crooked grin, and Naruto noticed he had a staff in his left hand. The staff was made of emerald green wood, like the leaves sprouting on the numerous trees in Konoha. On the head of the wood there was a brilliant azure gem, the sort of color of his blue eyes, that almost glowed and dimmed like a heartbeat. Naruto thought he was imagining it though, because there was no way it could be real. The man's eyes turned dark, as if Naruto was staring into a deep hole.

"Boy, you just fucked with the wrong people in coming here. Do you have any idea where you are?"

"Red Scorpion," Naruto replied, voice wavering. He felt something stuck in his throat and wanted to gulp but he was scared and he didn't want the old man to know.

"This place," the man said, punctuating every word with hot spittle that flew from his diseased mouth and onto Naruto's face, "This place," the old man's voice roared to a crescendo and some of the customers stood up, hands clenched, pasty faced with anger. Not on his behalf though. Naruto's heart thudded and he wanted to pull away but he felt something freeze him from the insides. It came from the man.

_Killer intent, _Narto thought. The man's going to kill me.

"This place is where the Kyuubi killed my only son!" The man drew his right hand from Naruto's shoulder, and the boy breathed in a sigh of relief which ended soon after when the old man smacked him across the face with the back of his hand. "You disgust me," the old man said. "I hate you! It's your fault my family's dead. Your fault I'm crippled!"

Naruto didn't stay long after. He kicked the man in the knee upon reflex and ran out the door. The old man's pain filled howl filled the empty streets, drowning out the steady thundering of the rain.

Naruto didn't know in which way he was going, only that he had to run, he had to get away from there for his own safety. A second or two passed before the mob moved in tandem out the door, and followed hot on the heels of the village pariah.

"Come back here brat!" An angry voice roared, and the voice was almost behind Naruto's ear. Such was the speed of a ninja.

With unexpected strength Naruto put an extra burst in his speed, and saw from the corners of his eye that the ninja were chasing after him on rooftop to rooftop. Nothing happened beside the dog-chase for exactly three minutes and ten seconds, if Naruto had been counting. But that's when a kunai, thrown by one of the chasing ninjas, one of many thrown (and missed) kunai, hit right between his two shoulder blades. He felt sharp hot pain shoot up his neck and reached back to pull out the kunai. He felt his blood run down his hand as he pulled, but it was lodged too deep and it hurt too much. Naruto panted, he couldn't run anymore, and he fell to his knees, crawling away. The village mob, angry and ready to commit murder, raced after him and almost caught up with him when a Chuunin who had watched the proceedings put himself in between Naruto and the mob.

Naruto turned around and looked with disbelieving eyes as the Chuunin ninja, young, barely fifteen, black eyed, black haired, a sharp pointy noise, angular face, wearing the traditional ninja vest, said in a sharp voice that brooked no disobedience and filled with hard rock-like hate said, "What the hell do you people think you're doing?"

Naruto gulped. Finally, he was saved! The Chuunin stood tall as the mob approached, shouting in a flurry of mixed voices so great that nothing could be made out.

"Stop!" The chuunin said, "We can take this up to the Hokage, understand?"

One of the ninja following from the rooftops dropped in front of the chuunin. "Yuugi-kun, get away from here," he said.

"Sensei?" The Chuunin, whose name was Yuugi Naruto gathered, said. "What's going on here?"

"This… you don't belong here… you're too young. Just go, Yuugi, run away from here and don't tell this to anyone. Understand?"

The Chuunin shook his head, "You're chasing after a little child. And he's hurt!" Yuugi turned to Naruto and leaned over him, "Come on, lets get you to the hospital-" Yuugi choked, and blood spurted out of his mouth over onto Naruto's yellow slicker. The ninja behind him, his sensei, had stuck a katana in chuunin, at the same place Naruto had gotten hit with the kunai.

Yuugi fell to the ground in front of Naruto and with a last tear filled gaze at the billowing grey clouds above, he closed his black eyes which would never open again for the chuunin who had tried to save him was now dead. Naruto saw the death in a dream like state of mind as he thought to himself, "This isn't happening, this isn't real." He didn't realize he said it aloud until the ninja responsible for the murder said in a harsh unforgiving tone:

"It is very real, boy. He's dead because of you! You did this! You!" He waved the bloody katana and Naruto watched with apt fascination as drops of blood hit the pavement and mixed with the rain water that was flooding the streets. Red turned pink, and all Naruto could think was that it's my fault. He died because of me.

Witnessing a murder is never easy, and though he had watched people die on the television – in movies that Iruka showed the Academy students to impress upon them the harshness of the ninja life, watching a person die in real life was completely different. It was real, it was startingly shocking and more so it called up a choking emotion from within Naruto, something great that rose upward from his chest, a mixture of sadness, anger, and strangely enough, happiness. This man had died for him. He felt loved, he felt hated, he felt reality shatter around him like a clay pot thrown on the floor, and he felt himself changed, from the inside.

He would never be the same innocent Naruto again. Not with the image of the rain washing the blood that still spurted out from the dead chuunin's arteries where the Katana had fatally wounded the ninja resting firmly in his mind.

The killer was watching him with hatred in his eyes and he drew the katana overhead. Just as he was about to swing it down, Naruto snapped out of his reverie. It was only his instincts and luck that saved him from the katana's downward swung. The sword missed by a hair as Naruto crouched to his feet, pain in his shoulder blades completely forgotten.

He ran faster than he ever had before, and he heard behind him the killer ninja shout to the mob, "Come on, after him! After the Kyuubi brat!"

Kyuubi brat? What did that mean? Some part of his mind – a childish mind – was fascinated by small details that would go unheeded by adults, details like why Iruka's shoes were always muddy on Tuesday mornings or why Nara Shikamaru always seemed so tired. As he ran, his mind focused on it, and he felt some genius part of him slowly put the pieces together. He felt himself solve the mysterious puzzle that had plagued his entire life but the answer to the puzzle was still beyond him, and as he ran, he tried to understand. It was like trying to remember something that you've long since forgotten, like an answer to a math problem you did ages ago.

The pain between his shoulder blades had stifled to a slight tingling but the angry mob's roars behind him still pushed him onward. And that's where we see him right now, turning left on an alley way to lose himself in Konoha's alley maze. Only the alley was a dead end, and Naruto was cornered. The mob closed in on him, some had kunai and shuriken drawn, others were quite willing to use their fists. They neared, he was cornered, he was going to die, and he felt fright paralyze him. He trembled in fear as the mob neared… what were they going to do to him? His runaway thoughts were brought together when he felt a fist hit him from the side and crack his jaw. The force of the momentum threw him against the brick walls of the alley, where he hit the wall on his head. He heard a soft splush sound as he fell to the pavement, dragging a trail of bright red blood on the wall.

They closed in on him, grinning in malicious hate and as they neared.

2

"Why?" Naruto groaned out as he felt somebody kick him in the side. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"You don't know?" The old man laughed as he swung the emerald staff over Naruto's limp form, creating a sound of cracking bone. "Have you forgotten, Kyuubi-sama?" He said it mockingly.

"P-please…" Naruto whimpered as he tried to shrink in on himself.

The beating started, vicious and ruthless, and all of them got in a good shot at "Kyuubi-sama" and after they were done, Naruto was bruised, bleeding in many places, arms legs and bones broken. The old man stepped forward, the crowd parted. He gave the killing blow. First he grabbed the head of the staff, the azure globe like thing and he pulled it off, revealing a blade that shot out of the hole from the staff.

"Have a good trip in hell, Kyuubi!" The man said hatefully and swung the staff into Naruto's gut.

The demon container coughed up blood, groaned and passed out. The mob watched for a few more minutes, in the pounding rain and suddenly felt horrible for what they did. There was no Kyuubi here. It was only a little boy. They turned and walked away and the old man was the last to go. But before he did, he turned and spat on the village pariah. "That's for my son, you bastard."

Then Naruto was all alone, half dead, whimpering every now and then, and he finally felt peace – a strange sort of peace, more like exhaustion but peace just the same. He was going to die. In death there would be nothing, no likes or dislikes, no happiness, no pain, nothing whatsoever. It would be perfect bliss.

Naruto smiled as he eagerly awaited his death but it didn't come.

3

It was the day of the Destruction of Konoha, Naruto's birthday as well: October Tenth.

The Kyuubi roared flame in a blaze of glory, eyes yellow and black sweeping the ninjas of Konoha with its deadly gaze and unmatchable killing intent, nine tails running over forests and mountains with ease as if parting through water. Everywhere the forestry burnt, buildings burnt, destruction, pain, death. Screams. Blood. The Kyuubi loved the sight of blood, it engaged him, pounded the arteries, cleansed the chakra. The nine tailed demon fox loved blood because it made him feel alive, and as he killed the puny ninjas and civilians alike one by one like he was killing ants, he pondered on the meaning of life.

In his own roundabout way of course, he thought about what it meant to kill, how rich with desire and hunger it made him feel, how alive he felt as he killed a human.

Konoha had once been the brightest village to lit the world, full of power and potential, and the burning fires of youth according to one eccentric Chuunin taijutsu master. Maito Gai was one of the few to come out of the ordeal uninjured, because he helped put out the fires in the forest. Taijutsu didn't really do much against a gigantic five story tall demon. Coming close to the Kyuubi meant burning yourself and not many people were eager to do that. The only way to fight this demon was to use high powered jutsu to subdue it and make it retreat.

The Kyuubi was dumb. In his bloodlust, his analytic skills took a sharp drop. He didn't realize what was going on, how he was being led like a sheep into a trap until after when he brooded in the seal.

He?

That's what the people of Konoha thought he was.

The Kyuubi didn't exactly have a gender, not being human and all, and being a demon made out of pure chakra. But he preffered to be a female. So _she _as she thought of herself, didn't notice what was going on until it was too late when the annoying midget sized Yondaime Hokage rode on Gama Bunta the giant frog. He put the seal on the Kyuubi, transferred it to a little baby while calling up the shinigami at the same time… and she had never forgiven the Yondaime for being trapped in his son, Naruto Uzumaki.

She was trapped in the seal for all of eternity it seemed – or at least until the child died, whereupon she would die with him. It sucked to be the Kyuubi sometimes. What would her anscestors in the other world think of her, getting beat to a human like that.

Still, as she watched Naruto getting beaten up with a modicum of satisfaction, she still wanted to live, even if she lived a gruesome existence in the seal. She needed to be alive because one day an opportunity might come – she didn't know what kind – where she could escape. She just had to be patient.

She didn't start the healing process until after the mob was gone, but then all at once, she flooded the boy with her chakra through the sixty seals that held it in place. She healed the boy as well as she could… or tried to.

4

As she pumped chakra into his blood stream, she encountered a minute resistance from the boy's life force. Damn, she thought, as she could feel the boy's life slipping away. This isn't possible! The Kyuubi dying to a bunch of village idiots! No! She pumped even more chakra into Naruto but it didn't do much except increase the healing rate. Still, pumping chakra was exhausting, but she didn't want to die at any rate.

There was only one thing to do: overpower the seal to save the boy. But if she did that… well she might escape or she might kill the boy. But she didn't want to do it for no reason, only as a last resort. Well, it was apparent the boy was dying, couldn't be saved, not even by the nine tailed demon so she did the only thing she could think of. She tried to overpower the seal.

The Kyuubi no Kitsune took a deep breath and transported herself in the mindscape – the sealscape more like. This was where the seal existed, in a reddish huish forest of sorts, but it pained her to be in here as she examined a big blue box that floated in the sky, glowing with barely repressed energy – the life force of the Yondaime himself was in that box. The fourth hokage was no pushover, and his sealing arts was unsurpassed.

The Kyuubi had spent many many hours examining the box and she had come to the following conclusions: the seal could be broken and if she did break it she might die.

So she would only break the seal if there was no other choice and chance the risk of her dying.

But what if she had made a mistake?

5

The Kyuubi powered up the blue box with glowing red chakra. She had her demonic chakra seep into the box like blood seeping into sand. It was a painful process, almost impossible and it took all her determination to do it as well. But as she pushed reddish chakra – hurtful demon chakra into the box, she felt herself being lifted as if she were floating, or flying on powerful wings. The box seemed to glow in many places as if it were breaking apart and then suddenly there was a humungoes boom, and an explosion that shook the very foundations of the mindscape she was in.

When she came to, she saw that there was no box anymore, and there was no mindscape. It was an abyss of pure blackness. Was this death? She wondered.

What had she done?

Outside, if one was looking at Naruto's unconscious form they would have noticed a rising tide of chakra coming out from Naruto's body in waves, breaking the skin… reforming it into a new body, fresh, powerful, strong, lithe. The new Naruto stood up, eyes completely white with no pupils and moved his head from side to side, making cracking noises.

From his two palms blue balls of chakra came forth and met in a single strand. In the middle there was a triangular red and right at the center of the triangle there was a small black spot, and in the black spot if someone were to look with a magnifying glass they would have seen the Kyuubi no Kitsune in her true form, a spiderish being made of gray matter from beyond the fringes of the universe where her true home – the home of her ancestors resided.

But of course nobody was around, and if anybody had been they would have soon died because there was an explosion like the one in the mindscape except several times larger, taking in the entire quarter half of Konoha's buildings, alley ways and permanently weakening the city.

The casualties from the explosion, which the civilians thought was a result of an explosion in the gas lines but the ninjas knew better, numbered more than ten thousand. The ninjas in the village all sensed the Kyuubi's chakra radiating from the single spot where Naruto had stood, and within minutes squads of ANBU units were mobilized. They were the front line men and immediately made their way to the exposion to scope out the situation. Hatake Kakashi, ANBU captain, reported to the Hokage, saying there was no imminent threat. Then jounin and genin teams, as well as chuunin went to put out the fires, much like they had after the Kyubi's attack. Sarutobi would invariably decide to quarantine off the entire section where the explosion had sprouted from and conduct his own special investigations… which would last for four years when he would be assassinated by Orochimaru in the Chuunin exams.

Naruto lived, contrary to popular belief. Right before the world around the boy exploded, time stopped, and the red triangle grew larger and larger until it swallowed Naruto whole, and then everything, all the blue, red, and shinigami black energies compressed to create a rip in the space-time dimension, taking out the city block and causing the great explosion to rip through Konoha.

But for Naruto the story continues…

6

The Kyuubi felt a rippling sensation go through her very being as the blackness around her seemed to evaporate almost instantly. But she saw with a sinking heart she was right back where she started with in the mental mindscape, the blue box of the fourth Hokage looming overhead. At least she wasn't dead though, she had to thank her lucky stars for that.

Now would be a good time for the reader to get a picture of the mindscape. It is unlike any corporeal creation, unlike any city or village, though it is roughly that size. It exists in a swirl of reddish hue that emunates from the Kyuubi no Kitsune's chakra. Indeed, the entire mindscape is powered by the Kyuubi, including the seals of the Yondaime hokage. Down below there is reddish blackness, with a forest of red oakwood trees coming forth from this blackness and all though they have no bottom they do have a top, leafy canopies loom over the Kyuubi's spider-like body (her real one, she has nine legs, not tails), though she can change her body any time she wants to. Overhead, black clouds billow in no particular direction, sometimes this way sometimes that depending on her endlessly shifting moods and states of mind. Long ago she had figured out that she could_change _the mindscape, instead of trees she could put a lake, instead of a lake a mountain. But she liked the iron-strong trees, she liked the never ending trunks and the sheer horror of the place. If a normal human would come into the mindscape their entire body would be burnt off, so if she could draw a human mind in here, she would have the perfect torturing device. But that dream seemed distant and far away. Beneath the endless trees, if one looked deep enough there wasn't just empty blackness like the abyss from which she was created, but something much different: a sea of gray swirls, with dark navy blue fishes sometimes jumping out. They were paper thin, and had sharp protruding teeth. The trees reached into the sea and endlessly beyond it but the Kyuubi had never journeyed through the ocean and to the other side: she didn't have the courage. She remembered her time as a little kit, in the far reaches of the universe from whence she had come. Her anscestors had raised her, and had changed her from a lovely little demon who had perfectly nice manners and a loveable personality to a… a monster. The fishes, with their evil eyes and sharp teeth were metaphors for her anscestors, and the tortures she had been through when she had erupted from the abyss as a newborn babe.

No, she didn't venture into the ocean, though sometimes she watched it from far above with a look of such venomous hatred, it compared nothing to the hatred and dislike she held for humans… hatred that had been _bred _into her by the fishes in the sea. Beyond the sea there was something and beyond that there would be something else as well. The mindscape was an endless realm just waiting to be explored but despite Kyuubi's terminal boredom, she didn't have the courage to venture to the sea filled with her metaphorical anscestors.

However, the seal on the box was breaking, only a small tiny crack she noticed as she examined the blue box, but in time that crack would grow. She smiled grimly to herself, deciding to bide her time and wait for the seal to break away. Then she would be free once again.

Meanwhile Naruto Uzumaki, most surprising ninja in Konoha was in for a surprise when he woke up in a gigantic cavern ten times the size of Konoha… the cavern was also made of ice. Naruto took all this in with wide basketball sized eyes. He closed them, clenched them tightly shut more like, and said, "No way, no way, no way." When he opened them again and saw the cavern of ice, with its glassy walls, shiny ceiling with icicles hanging from the sides and its glossy diamond exterior, he almost fainted in disbelief. He thought it was a dream, because there was no way the ice cavern could be real, not with the statues that adorned it: of dragons, of elven maidens and warriors, of monstrous creatures with four legs and a horse's upper body, and other deformed _things. _

Where in the world was he? This question ran endlessly in his mind, a litany of confusion and frustration. If this was a dream, this was a damn good one, Naruto had to admit as transversed the cavern to a doorway that lay on a mountain like structure far far away. Naruto could see a winding path he had to take around the mountain to get to the doorway but to get to the mountain itself would be a long long journey.

Naruto began walking, and in a few hours he was tired, thirsty, hungry, and all the ice creation's mystique and wonder had worn away to dull annoyance. Still he trudged onward, and before he knew it, by taking one step at a time and concentrating on nothing else, he was already at the foot of the tall blue-iced mountain. The doorway was a triangular black and red, and it seemed to have an aura of magical energy surrounding it. Naruto could almost _feel_something there, something that drew him to the doorway. Where else would he go anyways to get to the outside? To get back to Konoha.

As he walked up the winding ice path, slipping constantly, he learned to use a kunai – a blunt old one that he had in his back pouch – to grapple with the ice and make himself climb up. It was tough, but it was worth it as well… at least until he got to the platform of ice where the doorway stood, tall and mighty. That's when a thought – how did I get here? – sparked off a memory: his last memory of Konoha… the chuunin dying, him getting beaten up, an explosion or something, and here he was.

He fell all the way to the bottom of the winding path and as he was sliding down he tried to stop himself using his palms but all that did was bruise and burn them from the fiction. He landed on the floor in a crumpled heap. Dusting himself off, while screaming a litany of curses at the same time, he prepared to journey all the way up the mountain again, only he realized he had left the kunai up there. Damn, it was his last kunai too.

Now how was he going to get over there? He wondered to himself. A ten year old boy is not anything but resourceful and creative and he quickly thought up a good solution: he would run as fast as he can, and if he ran fast enough the ice won't get a chance to make him slide… or something. To the ten year old demon container, this made a lot of sense, so without any doubts or worries and with a bright smile slightly dimmed by the memory of the chuunin's death he took a head tart twenty feet away from the path up the mountain.

He ran as fast as he could, and unconcsciously started using the demon's chakra. Red swirls of energy melted the ice surrounding him within a foot's radius. As he ran up the mountain, the ice melted into water and steam but he didn't know he was destroying the mountain as he ran up to the doorway. If he had known he would have probably cheered himself further in his annoyance of the ice cavern. He reached the doorway in three seconds exacty, turned a black knob and released the energy of the Kyuubi as he relaxed. He opened the door, and a bright white light filled his eyes.

7

It took some time to adjust to the two suns of this world, as opposed to the bluish light that seemed to be emitted from _somewhere_in the cavern. But as he got used to the bright light, with just a slight dull pain in the back of his eyes, he noticed the sand first: shiny yellow brown, glistening in the sunlight. Then he noticed the two balls of orange-red above, shining from two directions in the sky: west and east. Two suns, he thought in wonder. What was this place?

Poking out from the endless sea of sand were small round metal orbs, and it all had the same doorways that the cavern had. In fact, as he stepped out of the cavern and looked back, he saw that the cavern was only a foot long, a small circular globe of steel. How was that possible when it had been so long inside? A shrinking jutsu perhaps?

Maybe I am in an enemy village, he considered. "Okay enemy ninja! Come out! Fight me!" Naruto yelled out, perfectly confident in his ability as a ninja and his destiny to become the Hokage. "Fight the future Hokage of the Hidden leaf!" His voice echoed throughout the desert and immediately he regretted saying it.

The doors opened, slowly, but surely, they opened and out stepped the tallest people Naruto had ever seen. All of them easily reached seven to eight feet in height and were as skinny as twigs. They had sunken black eyes, and mud caked hair that reached to their shoulders as well as two bright blue swords in each hand that looked sort of like lightning. They neared and came closer and closer.

Naruto gulped. "Uh… I mean… don't fight me."

"Who are you, little child?" said a loud thundering voice that seemed to shake the very foundations of the desert. Naruto looked to the voice's origins and saw to his surprise the first woman in these collection of warriors: tall she was, like the others, and had bright azure coloured hair and golden eyes, pointy ears that seemed to point to the suns on either side of her and pale brown skin. She wore a robe the sort Naruto had never seen before, long and billowing, red and blue and jewelry all across her body in every place one could see: arms, nose, lips, eye lids, forehead, fingers, on her bare feet. Gold, diamonds, rubies, chips of onyx.

"A-are you the Kage of this village?" Naruto said, voice breaking.

She snorted. "Village? You idiot, I am the queen of the ice-city!"

"Doesn't look like a city," Naruto said with false bravado. "Looks puny to me."

The warriors growled and came closer. The queen raised on hand: fingers curling and stretched unnaturally. "Stop, I wish to talk with this boy." Her voice reached such a high note that it seemed to spear Naruto's eardrums.

"Boy? Listen up you old hag-" they all gasped but it went beyond Naruto "-I'm a ninja and I'll kick your ass if you call me a boy again!"

"What did you call me?" She thundered, golden eyes blazing in fury. "Who sent you? Was it King Malek? Was it the Queen Bronze of the Red Dragons?"

"Huh?"

"You will answer me!"

"None of those people sent me," Naruto snorted. "I don't know nothing about them anyways, are you crazy or something?"

Her face turned red with fury. "Guards, take him to the prison-"

Naruto gulped and quickly shouted, "I'll tell you! You want to know who sent me? Fine, it was Konoha the hidden village of the Leaf who sent me and I am a super duper ninja who can kick all your asses with my pinkie finger."

The queen breathed in slow and deep and put a smile on her face, obviously forced. "Oh I see… a hidden village. Guards, stand down. He is an ambassador." She raised a hand, "Come, and escort him to the Royal Dining Room. I wish to talk with him in private."

She turned and walked away. Naruto couldn't see where she went; it was as if she faded away into the air. Then he noticed the other people doing the same until there was only one person left. A short wrinkled old fellow with a nose as long as a kunai. "An ambassador, you say?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, not knowing what that word meant. He simply couldn't believe that his lie worked though. Even he had doubts about that but it seemed nothing could stop the future Hokage, not some stupid ice mountain and certainly not these skinny twigs of a ninja.

"I have never heard of Konoha before…" he muttered doubtfully. "But that's why I suppose it's called the hidden village." Chuckling he grabbed Naruto's arm and started to drag him to the nearest steel globe.

"Where are you taking me?"

"You can't meet the queen in those drags. Come on, we need to get you washed up and dressed in royal finery. Come on!"

Naruto allowed the old man to take him into the doorway. "My name's Naruto, what's yours?"

The man gasped and whirled around at him, eyes bright with fear and awe. "You dare to tell me your name? B-but why?"

"Why not? Full name's Naruto Uzumaki." He said, shrugging.

The old midget man – who was almost the same height as Naruto – coughed harshly. "Why do you trust me so much? You just met me."

Huh? Did these people value other people's names or something? How stupid, thought Naruto.

"Yeah, but I like you. Are you going to tell me your name or not?" Naruto asked impatiently.

"Very well," the old man said with a bow, "My name's Rassuel, archivian and historian of the City of Ice, at your service."

Naruto nodded, "Good to have met you." Then he caught sight of where they were. "Whoa, what is this place?"

The room was enormous on the inside, triangular shaped like the doorway outside, like a pyramid, and most of all the air: outside it was hot as hell but inside it was cool and refreshing. Naruto immediately thought of the air conditioner in the Hokage's office, where he had been once… a memory that seemed to be a dream now that he was… here. Where was here? How come they had never heard of Konoha. He had so many questions about this place, and so he did the typical Naruto thing and instead of asking for questions – that would have made him looked less "kick-ass" he forgot about them and in typical childlike fashion, he accepted where he was without question.

The room was adorned by massive rugs, all of them red blue and yellow. They were soft and meant to be walked on on barefeet. Naruto took off his sandals as he ventured into the cavernous room. There were lots of shelves filled with books of all sorts and when Naruto caught sight of them he snorted. "I hate reading," he informed his guide, the midget man, Rassuel.

Rassuel for his part appeared shocked. "What? How can you hate the greatest invention in the entire universe? Reading is… is… like breathing! How-"

"Look, I've had experiences with reading, alright?" Naruto said annoyed.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Naruto seemed embarrassed with his face red, and looking down at his feet. "Nobody ever taught me-"

"I'll teach you," declared Rassuel. "I'll teach you so much that you will be able to read all these books in my personal library."

"Yeah?" Naruto grinned. "What kind of books?"

Rassuel leaned toward him, offering a conspirative wink as he said, "Books about magic."

"Oh really? Always wanted to learn magic," Naruto exclaimed.

"Yes but not now, N-Naruto," Rassuel appeared uncomfortable saying his name. "We need to get you prepared for your meeting with the ice queen."

"That old hag?"

Rassuel gasped. "Don't say that," he said, wagging a finger. "If she hears you saying it again she might have your head off."

Naruto gulped. "W-what?"

"Look, I know you are brave and obviously powerful. I mean a hidden city sent you of all people, and you seem to be very confident of yourself but please… don't insult her."

"Fine," Naruto grumbled. Then he said, "You wanna be friends?"

Rassuel smiled, "We already are, young Naruto." He went over to a giant red desk and sat down in one of those plush leather chairs Naruto had seen in the Hokage's office once. "You told me your name, I told you mine. We are brothers in all but blood."

"Cool. What is all this stuff about names anyways?"

"What do you mean?" At Naruto's blank look, Rassuel said incredulously, "You don't know that names can be used to kill people?"

"Huh? What?" Naruto shouted, shocked. "B-but-"

"Don't worry Naruto, I will protect your name with my life." Rassuel said seriously.

"I… so I guess I shouldn't have told anybody my name huh…?"

Rassuel's face saddened, "Do you regret telling me your name, Naruto?"

"No, I don't," Naruto said. "It's okay."

"Good, we're running late though, follow me." Rassuel took Naruto down a side passage that was dimly lit, walls were reddish brown, and so dark Naruto couldn't even see his hands. They went through the passage, walking slowly and softly for a few minutes before they came across another one of those triangular doors and into another gigantic cavern (all the rooms were huge it seemed) where there were bathtubs and swimming pools stretched out in rows of ten. Naruto's eyes hurt at all the white gleaming porcelien and the pinkish flowers on the red and blue tiles. It looked so beautiful it almost brought tears in the demon container's eyes. "Here we are," Rassuel said, and pointed at a swimming pool. All of the bathtubs and pools were filled with hot swirling clear water, and smelt like flowers and good scents. Perfume or something.

"Shower up, and once you're done, wear one of these." Rassuel pointed at a long robe hanging from a bar next to the triangular door. "That's the traditional ambassador clothing."

"Yeah, I am an ambassador huh?" Naruto cheered.

"It seems that way," Rassuel said. "Meet me back in the library, I'll give you a lesson in reading."

Naruto's grinned stretched even wider, "Thanks Rassuel."

The old man nodded and the lights hanging from the ceiling hit his face perfectly for Naruto to really notice the old man: he had wrinkly pale skin, a beard that stretched almost to his waist (how could I have missed that, Naruto thought) and sparkling brown eyes, as well as bushy gray eyebrows and mustache and a receeding hairline. He wore pale navy blue robes with a small round insignia of an icicle on his left breast, as well as carried a wooden walking stick. Strangely enough, Naruto was reminded of the tall old man with the emerald staff who had led the assault and had tried to beat him up back in Konoha. But this man was nothing like that. This man actually seemed to care about Naruto as a friend…

…but was he a friend really?

Rassuel left through the door leaving Naruto to enjoy a nice refreshing bath. As he lowered himself in a tub of scalding hot water, he relaxed and forgot about his troubles: life was good now. He was happy in this new land, and he didn't miss Konoha, and the unfriendly stares of its villagers and ninjas, and the crappy apartment and lack of good food one bit. No, in this Ice City, he liked it here.

But he still didn't know one bit about this place, so after his bath, he resolved to ask Rassuel for a good explanation about this strange new place. He had never heard of a city of ice, and while he wasn't suspicious, he was curious.

After his bath, he saw a rack of folded white towels which he used to dry off. Then he put on those billowy robes (royal finery Rassuel had called it). It felt really soft and silky, and was very comfortable. Loose too. He left his old clothes which reeked of sweat and blood on the floor of the cavern and went into the passage and back into the library.

"Rassuel," he said as he entered the library and caught sight of the old guy hunched over a book on his red desk, "I want to know something."

"What do you want to know?" Rassuel asked helpfully.

"Everything," surmised Naruto and questioned Rassuel about everything he could think of… producing an explanation that helped make sense of this world.

8

"A long time ago, long after the era of the ninjas and samauri warriors, a man walked the earth. His name is remembered throughout the world as the creator of the dragons: Uchiha Itachi. This man had many abilities, and many skills but his greatest accomplishment was no doubt the creation of the dragons which we still have today. Unfortunately, he was killed soon after by his evil and vile younger brother, named Sasuke.

"There are five dragons in the world today: the dragon of ice, of fire, of wind, of water, and of earth. These dragons are the backbone of the great five cities of the world. Each city is ruled by the most powerful warrior of our people, the one who can control the dragon and although the dragons have been sleeping for over ten thousand years… our rulers are the only ones powerful enough who have the slightest chance of controlling them should they wake up…" Rassuel said to Naruto who took this all in like a sponge.

Inside, Naruto was whirling with this new information as it suddenly hit him: he was in the future, and not just a little bit in the future, but possibly thousands and thousands of years into the future. A lot of time had passed, a lot of wars had been fought, so many changes…

How in the world did he get here? He knew the Uchiha clan of course, they were massacred by this creator of dragons, Itachi. And Sasuke was a classmate in the Academy too!

"What… I mean… what kind of magic do you guys use?"

"Well, we basically control our elementals. The city of ice controls water and ice, and the city of fire and earth and wind control their respective elements. We are probably the most powerful in the world because we control two elements. You see, Naruto, a long time ago, the nation of water and ice went to war, and we won. Now we live in constant fear of war, all of our cities and alliances with the hidden villages are most crucial to us."

"Wait, you mean, you have more ambassadors from other villages?" Naruto sure hoped not because if they did, they might expose him for the fraud he was and that would be deadly fatal for him.

"Um… no, we don't. But our legends say that a long time ago hidden villages existed, and we have heard of the name Konoha before. Indeed we have been expecting an ambassador ever since we set out a call in all the slums of the world for a hidden village to contact us. Now that you have come… it is very fortunate."

"Right," Naruto said, hoping he could keep this deception up long enough to get out of here, but not before a sinister plan evolved in his mind: what if he learnt their magic? Then he would be super powerful, and he could become the Hokage when he went home, right? "So, tell me… is your magic restricted to your blood or can anybody use them?"

"If you have the right aptitude for it, of course. But if you really want to learn, I can teach you a few basic moves from all of the elements."

"You know them? All of them? But how?"

"Well… don't tell anybody, but I used to be a warrior a long time ago, and one day I found myself in enemy territory, holed up in a library in the fire lands. So I read through their scrolls and… well it's a long story."

"Can you tell it to me?"

"Later," said Rassuel. "Now it's time to meet with the queen. I'm sure you are hungry, Ambassador Naruto, and I'm sure you must be wanting food."

"Of course."

"But if you don't mind me asking, why did you want me to repeat information everybody knows and is easily available?"

Uh oh, thought Naruto, this is going to make me or break me. I have to give him a smart answer that he'll believe, or else he'll get suspicious…

Naruto was no good at thinking up smart things to say. But luckily for him, the Kyuubi no Kitsune helped him out. She said in a silky cat like voice, "Tell him I wanted to make sure my information was reliable."

Naruto listened to the voice in his mind and when he told Russuel, the old ice warrior nodded to himself, "Makes sense," he said. "Come on, let's go to the Royal Dining Room… But before we go, listen carefully. You must act very respectful and formal in front of her. She is easily insulted and-"

"Don't worry, old man, I will," Naruto said, eyes hardening as he thought: I'll do whatever it takes to learn the skills I need to become Hokage.

"That's excellent, Naruto," Russuel said. "Come on, follow me." The walls of the library were filled with those triangular doors which Naruto reasoned were entrances to tunnels that linked the rooms of the underground city of ice. "Hey, why's there no ice in this city?"

Russuel laughed, "We only use ice in battle, my good friend… and in the museum of history."

"Oh."

"Which reminds me, how did you get into the museum without any of us noticing?"

"Secret Konoha techniques." Naruto lied bravely.

"Wow, impressive," Russuel said.

9

The Kyuubi no Kitsune was estatic, it worked, it actually worked. The seal was crumbling slowly but surely and now finally for the first time in ten years she had gone a short step toward the long road of freedom. She had influenced Naruto's thoughts and speech, only for a little bit before being forced back to the mindscape via highway Hokage Seal, but just for a moment she had herself a taste of freedom, and it had never felt so good.

She wanted to try it again but amazingly enough she was exhausted. She just didn't have the energy – or rather couldn't draw the energy out from her spirit force. So she would have to wait to regain her energy but she was still quite happy. The seal wouldn't last long, the blue box was already crumbling bit by bit and it would only be a matter of time… she had all the time in the world. "I just hope the little brat doesn't die soon, or else all my plans will be ruined," she mused thoughtfully to herself.

The Kyuubi was nothing if not careful and detailed, and she paid extra attention to Naruto and his surroundings, and the explanation from Russuel. So… She had transported them into the future huh? Well, she knew exactly how this happened: it was a not so well known fact that the Kyuubi no Kitsune's ability – one of her three most powerful abilities in fact – was time travel. She had transported Naruto into the future by who knew what length of years, and even more so, she had done it with hardly even knowing she was doing it. Wow, that took some mad skillz, she thought and patted herself on the back. No more dealing with stupid little Konoha. Now she had a new world on the platter all to herself, as soon as the seal wore away though. She would be free as free can be –

Wait, no I wouldn't, she thought with a groan. She was going to be trapped in Naruto's body. She had forgotten about that. But still, it wasn't so bad, she could probably get the foolish naïve little boy to do her every whim, and follow her every command. The Kyuubi was smart and cunning and manipulating a ten year old kid who had the brain cells of a puppy would be easy enough.

If the Kyuubi had hands she would be rubbing them in malicious planning and gloating, instead she rubbed her two paws together as she awaited her freedom.

10

In a gloomy chamber lit only by a single candle that had been placed in the middle of a round oak table, there sat the entire council of the City of Ice, with the queen at the throne. The Queen was an impatient women, as could be seen by her tapping the wood with her long curly fingernails. "Well? Is the boy really an ambassador?" She asked as she scrutinized the three council members seated across the table.

The first council member was the War General. They were all known only by their titles because names – as almost everybody knew – could be used as an assassination tool. If a warlock or a witch knew your name they had complete and utter control over you and not even the Queen had the authority to force a name out of someone unwilling to give it for free. The War General was tall, as were all the people of the now evolved (only slightly) human race that inhabited the futuristic world. He had a small violet beard hanging from his chin, which he regularly stroked, and sand colored pupils with bloodshot eyes that comes from lack of sleep. He had been very stressed lately because the City of Fire were amassing their force on the City of Ice's borders, and it was indeed cause for worry. Fire had been their enemy throughout the centuries. They would not hesitate to attack Ice Kingdom if it meant victory, as they had done countless times in the past. Always, they failed because the War General – this general's ancestors – kept them at bay. Now here was this century's old War General, constantly worried he would fail his ancestors by letting the Fire nation destroy the Ice Kingdom. He hoped that would never happened, but this insecurity had made him harsh and unforgiving.

The council member seated in the middle was a smallish man in terms of height, with a black business style mustache, wearing a suit, and thick glasses. He spoke with a drawl that grated on the Queen's nerves and was the most hated member of the council in the entire Ice Kingdom which stretched for miles and miles of desert-land. He was known as the Economics Minister, and administered taxes and trade routes and economic diplomacy with the other nations. He was sneaky, shrewd, and ambitious to the utmost, having only the Ice Kingdom National Bank as his main interest, where he served the role of C.E.O among his other duties. The Queen hated him with the utmost loathing, because he always – and he usually got away with it – tried to undermine her authority… and there was nothing the proud queen could do about it except spread her legs and enjoy the ride so to speak.

The third council member was the youngest, and also a woman. She was known as the Back Up. If the Queen ever got assassinated she would be the one to replace her. The Back Up was also the Ice Queen's only grandchild, and loved dearly by about half of the kingdom. The other half wanted to rebel and declare the Ice Nation a democratic nation. Foolish, in the opinion of the Queen.

Finally there was the Queen herself: rude, selfish, spoilt, and strong. She had been bred to be the Queen from birth and as such it had led to her having a big head, and full of hot air. And her grandchild was no different. The Queen and the Princess usually voted together on topics, so as to outdo the other two member's votes – the War Chief and the Economics Minister rarely agreed on anything. In this cunning way the Queen controlled her country well. However the Ice nation had started on a decline, and was growing weaker and weaker by the day while the Fire nation grew stronger and stronger, with their hungry gaze turned on the Ice Nation, mouths watering out favors to other nations with the express intention of having them not interfere if war were to break out.

That was why alliances with potential superpowers – hidden ones no less – was very important. "So? Anybody going to answer me?" The Queen asked.

"Well…" Began the Economics Minister. "We just don't know, your highness."

Reluctantly the War General nodded, "It is true. He came… I don't know how he got past the border and into the heart of our kingdom… but he seems strong enough."

The Queen nodded, "I measured his power level… I'm sure you all did the same as well." She pulled out a little device that looked like a stop clock from the sleeve of her robe and showed it to the room. It read: 9999999999

They did not know this was because of the Kyuubi that Naruto's power level was so high on the power level device. Without the Kyuubi Naruto's power level would only be 3 or 4, the lowest of the low.

"Impossible," murmured the War General. "Our highest level warriors barely exceed two hundred…"

The Economics Minister had a greedy glint in his eye as he said, "Just imagine what an alliance would do… we could practically rule the whole world with-"

"Your highness," said the Back Up Queen.

"Yes, princess?" asked the Queen.

"If this hidden village, Konoha, is as powerful as we believe it is, then they might have sent ambassadors to the other cities as well."

"An excellent point," said the Queen. "War General, what are your thoughts on this matter?"

"We will need to convince the ambassador we are worth the Hidden Village of Konoha's support."

"But how?" asked the Economics Minister. "Surely you don't expect us to humiliate ourselves and cater to his every whim?"

"That's exactly what we must do. Just think of it, this boy could wipe out our entire kingdom with a twitch of his pinkie if he had a mind to it."

"But he's just a boy," protested the Economics Minister.

"Pah, I think not," said the Queen. "He's obviously an old sage. Probably a thousand years old. They've discovered the secret to immortality, I bet."

"Could be," said the Princess, "Maybe he'll share the secret."

"Then its agreed, we'll have to stroke his ego, and make him realize that this City is worth Konoha's support." The Queen said.

"Let's take a vote," said the Princess. "I agree."

"Very well," the Queen said, "As you all know I agree to this decision as well."

"I agree," said the War General.

"I disagree," said the Economics Minister, "We can't show weakness, not now. Please reconsider."

"No, it's already been voted on," said the Queen. "Next topic… Agriculture. Our food supplies are steadily decreasing so…."

10

The Queen waited until the entire council departed from the meeting room. She always left last, it was tradition and the Queen was nothing if not an aficionado of tradition. She went to the bath houses and refreshed herself for dinner with the Amassador from Konoha. They met in the Royal Dining Room, Naruto being led reluctantly by Rassuel, the crippled ice warrior, retired.

The Royal Dining Room was unlike any other, plush red carpets, a long rectangular table made of the blackest of wood, with golden silverware, and long columns of decoration for pillars that held up the dome shaped ceiling above which showed the starry sky. It was a glass ceiling… no, not glass, Naruto realized. The ceiling was made of ice.

The room was quite possibly longer than any other room Naruto had been in, with the possible exception of the ice museum. It was so long that the Queen was only a smudge on the horizon and it took at least four minutes of walking to bee seated at the table end to end, and even then they were so far away they could barely make out each other's features.

The dinner began when the Queen snapped her fingers. Doors opened from the side walls, and out walked thousands of creatures about the same height as Russuel and Naruto, demented humans from the seven foot tall originals. They carried food on silver trays, and Naruto gazed at it hungrily as the scents of the food – meat, nice and spicy, sweet pies, the smells of vegetable soup and what seemed like ramen, as well as bottles of juice drinks, all brought on shiny platters by the elderly and crippled. They were dressed in red suits, and wore their badges of service proudly. Naruto realized that their jobs as servants right now didn't mean it was a disgrace, rather, it meant they got the utmost grace as nobody felt useless in this kingdom. Naruto's perspective of human nature grew, subtly and slowly, a sign of maturity.

But he was still ten years old: "Wow, this looks great!"

"Thank you," said the Queen, too formally, almost cold. "Please, eat," she said. "Historian, please leave us."

Rassuel bowed, "As you wish, your highness." He left into the catacombs of the underground tunnels that led to the cavernous rooms.

"This is… wonderful," said Naruto as he savored a delicious piece of square meat, brownish blackened from the roasting. He drank from a goblet that one of the servants had wordlessly poured for him. They ate in silence, Naruto gobbled his food fast, hadn't realized how hungry he was, while the Queen nibbled at her food. When they were done, Naruto was full and drowsy.

That's when they started their talking, more like negotiations. "Ambassador," said the Queen, "What is your purpose in coming here?"

"I… want to learn all your magic," he said sleepily. "Haven't ever seen anything like this."

"And what of your Konoha, don't they have their own magic?"

"You mean jutsus? Sure," said Naruto, "but I don't know any."

"I see… what is your status in the village, Ambassador?" Asked the queen.

"I'm an Academy student…" his voice trailed off as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

'Only a student?' Marvelled the Queen, 'and so much power in him. Just think of what the adults in Konoha can do. Why they could conquer the world if they wanted to. But the Ambassador doesn't strike me as an ambitious one, so I suppose… they don't care about power. Interesting…."

When the Queen noticed he had fallen asleep, he ordered Rassuel to put him in his own room, the guest room that was reserved for royalty.

Rassuel bowed, and did as his queen desired.

-----

AN: I was aiming for 20k words for this chapter, but since its only the first chapter, 10k will be fine. Updates are slow, but they'll come, don't worry.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Naruto gets training 

--------------------------------------------------------------

"Okay Rassuel how are you going to train me?" asked Naruto as they sat outside in the desert on a patio, sipping glasses of red berry juice which Rassuel called: Marhago beer. Naruto was too young to drink beer, but he wanted to try it anyways. "I mean, I am not very good at magic, I've never done it before so..."

Rassuel smiled. They were sitting side by side, leaning back on the patio chairs and watching the two orange balls in the sky (the two suns) set. It was after the dinner with the Queen, and almost the end of the day now. When the two suns set in the east and west respectively, a period of darkness would follow that would last for exactly twelve hours. Everybody slept in that time, because sleeping was impossible in the daylight, which lasted for a significantly longer period of time: thirty six hours. It seemed strange to Naruto, since he was in the future, he wondered how two suns came about. What sort of things happened from the time he was in Konoha to right now? Did a comet crash in here or something?

A subtle voice told him it would not be wise to ask that, it would make Rassuel suspicious and he definately wanted the crippled (Naruto wasn't sure how the old man was crippled except maybe in his height) old man on his side. Rassuel didn't answer his question at first, opting on enjoying the sunset with a relaxed laid back look on his face. But Naruto was eager to learn ice magic, and anything else that Rassuel knew so he could one day become Hokage back at Konoha. He wasn't sure how he would get back, but with his cheerful childish optimism he just knew he would get back, and he would come home greater than ever, and possibly become the most powerful ninja in existence! His goal was to become the Hokage, and for that he knew he would need to learn everything these seven foot tall stick-skinny giants could teach him.

"Come on, Rassuel, answer me," demanded Naruto as he slammed his balled up fist against the white barred chair, saying further, "I gotta learn what you can do to become stronger."

Rassuel laughed, "You are already strong, Naruto," he said.

"I know that, but back at Konoha they are stronger than me. Hell I know I'm weak now, so I want to learn everything you can teach me."

Slightly alarmed, Rassuel said, "Do they know you are here?" Naruto grinned and shook his head. "Nope, I'm forbidden to leave the village but you can't tell anybody, ok? Promise me."

"I... I promise," Rassuel said. So this young boy wasn't a ninja, just a deserter, huh? He didn't like the Queen that much, so while a loyal warrior would no doubt break the promise Rassuel had just issued and tell the Queen everything, Rassuel decided he wouldn't. No, he would train the young lad in everything he knew, and he knew quite a lot because he was more than a hundred years old. Ironically enough, as old as the Saindaime Hokage.

"Naruto, you have a lot of chakra inside of you," Rassuel began. "But I doubt you can control it, can you?"

Naruto shook his head. "Back home, all my jutsus never worked. Can you help me out there?"

"Of course. To start off, try this simple exercise," Rassuel said and lifted a gnarly hand to pick up a fistful of sand. He held the sand palm facing up, flat, and a look of concentration appeared on his brow. The sand slowly started to levitate, while Naruto watched with wonder, as the sand continued to levitate, it changed shape. The sand turned into a dog, the dog a cat, the cat an elephant and then a bull and then a statue of a tall man wearing long robes and having a beard and a saggy moustache that reached almost to his feet. "This, Naruto, was the old King."

"What happened to him?" Naruto asked.

"Our Queen," he said angrily, "killed him."

Naruto swallowed, "Err... sorry."

"Be careful around her, Uzumaki," Rassuel said and Naruto knew he was serious because he used his last name. "She is nobody to be trifled with. Once she cast a spell on me and turned me this short... Anybody who doesn't reach a certain height can't be in the army any more... she destroyed my entire career."

"I..."

"It's okay, Naruto, no need to say anything-"

"That's not fair!" Naruto cried out, hands balled up into fists. "Why did she do it?"

"I went against her politically. She is a very dangerous and cunning opponent, Naruto, you would be wise to remember it."

Naruto nodded, "I guess I'll be more careful around her," he said.

"Good," Rassuel said smiling. "You should know something about her though."

"What's that"  
"I'm her younger brother."

Silence.

Then, "How could she do this to... to... family?" Naruto demanded.

Rassuel shook his head. "Let it go for now, Naruto. Try the exercise I just showed you." Naruto glared at him for a few more seconds, angry at the queen, then he nodded, and breathed out a sigh. Rassuel was relieved.

The Demon Container lifted a palmful of sand and tried to make it levitate. The sand just lay there, didn't even twitch in the windless atmosphere. "I can't do it," he said, forehead scrunched up and sweating hard.

"It's difficult, keep trying," Rassuel said with a smile as he lay back and enjoyed the sun tan, sipping a bit from his drink. Out of the corner of his eye he watched Naruto intensely, and observed how he would learn this skill. Being curious, he wondered how fast Naruto would learn this basic exercise and already started planning a training program for his young friend. He had nothing else to do, being a historian was a damn boring job.

"Grr... this is hard," Naruto exclaimed. The sand didn't budge, and Naruto glared at it. If he could, he would have killed the lump of sand in his palm.

"You're doing it all wrong," Rassuel said with a hint of a grin.

"Huh? What do you mean, old man?"

"It's not how much force you put into this technique that makes it work."

"But... then how does this work?"

Rassuel tapped his forehead with a blackened index finger, "It's all in your mind Naruto. You have to train your mind, and once your mind is strong enough only then can you affect the reality around you."

"Oh," Naruto said, dejected and forlorn. "I'm not good at smart stuff."

Rassuel grinned, "That's even better."

"Huh?"

"Means your head isn't full with useless knowledge. Come on, I'll show you a super cool technique that will make your mind so strong it might even rival my own power of concentration!"

"Yeah? Really? Tell me! Tell me!" Naruto said, grinning ear to ear.

"But be warned, it will take a long time..."

"Just tell me!"

Rassuel watched Naruto bouncing on his heels with excitement, and decided to be lenient and not keep the young boy waiting any longer. "Sit cross legged on the sand first."

Naruto sat down promptly. "Like this?"

"Yeah, now close your eyes," Rassuel said. Once Naruto's eyes were closed he continued, "Concentrate on your breath, in and out."

"Okay."

"Sit there and keep concentrating on your breath. Whatever you do, don't move an inch unless you really have to."

"Alright, how long do I have to keep this up though?"

"The whole night."

"What?!" Naruto exclaimed, opening his eyes.

"Do you want to learn or not?"

"Yes, of course I do, but-"

"If you don't do what I say you will never learn." Rassuel said. "I'm going inside. Keep it up Naruto."

Sighing, Naruto closed his eyes and willed himself not to move. It was very hard, because he was such a restless boy but after the first ten minutes it got easier and easier. He started to become drowsy. 'No, I have to keep awake, I can't go to sleep on my training.' Naruto thought, and kept focusing on his breathing with grave intensity. Before he knew it, he was seeing red: the sun shining on his closed eyelids. He opened his eyes, and the sand looked fresh, gleaming with untold potential and energy. Naruto looked around with wonder at the incredible detail and scenery around him. He felt at peace and one with the world and all his excitement and restlessness was gone, with just a dull sense of pure happiness filling him. For the first time in ages he smiled softly, the first real smile on his face since he could remember. When he smiled right now, he couldn't feel his facial muscles. He was smiling a true smile.

He picked up a lump of sand from beside him, and looked at it. Then he closed his eyes, and tried to feel the sand inside, tried to become one with it so he could manipulate it by instinct. He opened them and saw the sand rising slowly into the air. Then his concentration broke, his peaceful calm destroyed by renewed excitement. "Yatta! I did it! I did it!" He shouted hard enough to wake up half the cavernous houses around him. People came through the triangular doors and saw the blonde orange boy jumping around in excitement.

Rassuel, who lived closest to where the blonde was jumping around like a maniac, came out with a groan. "Oi, Ambassador. Come inside."

"Yes! I did it!" Naruto said and followed Rassuel inside, happiness etched on his face.

Rassuel glared, "You're disturbing the peaceful early morning, Naruto."

"Oh, sorry," Naruto said, noticing the glares shot in his direction by the stick men. He was used to getting glared at by practically everyone so it didn't affect him. "Look though, look what I can do!" He grabbed a handful of sand, closed his eyes and focused. He tried to become one with the sand, tried to feel and look through a grain of sand as if he were the sand.

But he couldn't do it.

"Your concentration is gone. Go meditate again."

Naruto's face drooped. "I really thought I got it."

"Naruto, these things take time. Why, it took me months to learn how to control the sand."

"Really?" Naruto looked up, eyes hopeful.

"Yes," Rassuel said, nodding.

"Hey I got a question," Naruto said, "How come there's sand everywhere. Where's all your water and ice?"

Rassuel nodded to himself, "You're probably wondering that, I bet, huh?"

"Yeah, that's why I asked," said Naruto, annoyed.

"Well... it's a long story... basically ever since the comet struck, making Earth veer off in a different direction and starting the ice age and..."

Rassuel began the story of the planet...

---

Once long ago, Earth existed in an eternal state of bliss, with winters and summers and regular seasons. But then, a mysterious comet the same size as Earth's old moon struck the planet in the North pole. It struck with such force and impact that it sent Earth zooming through space, away from the home sun. This caused an ice age and everything froze for millions and millions of centuries, held in eternal statis. It seemed the gods were favorable however, and Earth stopped its course at just the right point, in a different solar system. Since then, Earth has had two suns, and no moons. The ice melted, but the long journey caused a number of changes in the atomic levels of the human genome, causing them to evolve and grow.

---

"But that still doesn't explain the lack of water around here!"

"I'm getting to it," said Rassuel. "Once the kingdom of ice lived in the North pole but but the topography of Earth changed when we zoomed through outer space and into this new solar system. Well, the entire planet kinda turned upside down. We are actually above the north pole right now, above all the water and ice. If you can concentrate hard, you can feel the water rushing under your feet below you. Try it."

Naruto closed his eyes and took three calming breaths as he tried to extend his senses around him. It was faint, not even noticable at first but then his eyes opened and he looked at Rassuel in wonder. "I can feel it," he said slowly, almost whispering. "This is amazing."

"I know, aint it?" Rassuel said, laughing. He ruffled Naruto's hair, "Come on, its time for breakfast."

"Yeah! Breakfast!" Naruto exclaimed. "I should get a reward because of all my hard work huh? I mean I stayed up all night meditating and-"

"You stayed up all night?" Rassuel asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it was tough but I did it!"

"Interesting, you've never meditated before have you?"

Naruto shook his head. "It's tough at first, but then it gets better."

Rassuel nodded. "Well, keep it up. Once you are good at molding sand, I'll teach you how to mold water. It's way tougher."

"Cool," Naruto exclaimed. "But I'm an ambassador here right?" He struggled over the big word. "What do they do?"

"You don't know?" Rassuel frowned. "Oh that's right, you sneaked here. Well, obviously you don't want anybody finding out-"

"But you know."

"Don't worry Naruto, we are like brothers now. I won't tell anybody your secret."

"Good, because I could get into big trouble with the Hokage if he heard."

"Hokage?"

"Yeah, he's the leader of Konoha."

"Oh... hmm..." Rassuel's eyes slowly widened in comprehension. "You aren't..." he said, taking a step back as his face turned bone white. "It couldn't be... are you from the same Konoha that Uchiha Itachi came from?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, nodding. "He created the dragons you said, huh?"

"Amazing," Rassuel had a look of awe etched on his face. "That's simply incredible."

"Hey, you still didn't answer my question. What do ambassadors do?"

"Well, they basically meet with the rulers of the kingdom and talk with them, make strong ties and cut deals with-"

"I don't want to meet that old hag again. Your Queen acts so high and mighty. Half the time she wouldn't even talk to me." Naruto said, remembering the dinner and his failed attempts at making conversation. He neglected to mention that the Queen was seated so far away she could barely hear what Naruto was sayiing, and even when she heard, what answer could she reply to something as inane as, "So whose the HOkage around here?" or "Where's your ramen?" She hadn't even known what the young diplomat was talking about, and she was probably just as uncomfortable around Naruto as the demon container was around her.

"You don't have to," Rassuel said. "It is usually the ambassador who starts off the meetings, so you could stay here with me as long as you want and nobody would say anything."

"Really? That's great. You can teach me everything you know. You're pretty old, so you must know lots and lots."

"Gee thanks," Rassuel said in sarcasm. Not maliciously intended though. Rassuel was slowly growing fond of young Naruto. "You just keep working on your meditation and molding sand. That's the first step toward controlling any element, be it water, fire, wind, or earth."

"What about lightning? Or cloud?" Naruto asked, remembering the hidden villages in his own world, and of the class discussions in the academy that surrounded it.

Rassuel laughed. "Those cities are all extinct. They were wiped out or assimilated into our great powers long ago."

"Huh... cool."

"Right, anyways, I might be retired, but I still have a lot of work to do. I'm forming a commitee to oversee the new robot spy gadgets we've developed that could potentially..."

Naruto tuned him out as he sat down on the sofa, and gazed about the splenderous living room with its flagged floor, narrow passageways leading to this room or that all within Rassuel's house. Rassuel lived a life of luxery evident in the numerous expensive furniture and objects situated in his house, as well as the little marble statues encrusted in the walls, of animals and reptiles, tapestries of past wars, which Naruto gazed at with an uncomfortable intensity: they were not ninja, but rather, scarecrow like figures and their fighting looked creepy.

The young demon container closed his eyes, and started to meditate, drowning out everything around him. Rassuel noticed and left in a huff. Time spun, reality stopped, and on and on the clock on the mantle ticked as Naruto found himself in blissful oblivion.

---

Meanwhile the Kyuubi no Kitsune was having a tough time breaking through the seals. Everytime Naruto meditated, she lost a little bit of control as the seals gained in power and started to fix themselves. She would have to do something drastic to put the status quo in her favour or it wouldn't be long before the seals had complete control again. Right now she could see throug his eyes and slightly influence his thoughts but that too would dissapear as she would once again become trapped in the mindscape.

The nine tailed demon started pumping chakra in waves, like ocean waves, into the mindscape, dissolving the trees, and ocean below it and whatever else that existed, pumping enough chakra to drown the mindscape completely into a red sea of demon power. The blue box was the only thing defying her existence, and keeping her from freedom. She didn't exactly have a plan, just operating on instincts which she always trusted, she pumped more and more chakra into the mindscape until she felt it expanding to its limits and about to explode like a balloon. The god-like being was rarely scared, because nothing could hurt her, but now she was. What she was doing could either kill her or give her freedom, or something else entirely.

Soon, the red chakra changed into black as there was just so much demonic chakra they overlapped, turning redder and redder until it settled to the color of the night sky, with a few spots of red for stars and the Blue box for a nearby sun. The box glowed blue, drowning out the blackness around it. Damn, she hated the seals now more than ever. Kitsune love to be free, and this box was holding her in a cage.

"Come on..." she growled. "If this doesn't work, I don't know what will.

---

Naruto felt something snap inside him and when he opened his eyes, he caught his reflection on the black table in front of him. His blue eyes were now red, gleaming with evil malice and hate. Inside he felt his stomach contract, and his throat choke up in tears: of hate. He wanted to kill, his bloodlust was at an all time high. He just wanted to go pyscho on something, just destroy somebody, get his claws into soft warm flesh.

He growled, making an animalistic noise from the back of his throat and turned to the sofa, which he began to tear in shreds. Once he was done with the sofa, he started on the cupboards and the tables, and moved swiftly through the narrow passages to other rooms, as silent as a wraith, he destroyed every single object in the house. Making his way into the kitchen, he dragged long yellow talons along the porcelein white counter where it made deep gouges in the works. He ripped the metal part of the sink off and thrust it into the triangular block of ice which held all the meats. He ripped the ice apart in shards, and sunk long elongated canines into frozen meat, biting it off despite its solid icy nature. Chewing roughly, the meat made cracking noises as it got munched between sharp demonic teeth.

"Hungry..." Naruto's voice had changed, becoming much more deeper and deadlier. "Need... food." He ripped apart the ice block even more, pulling a gigantic peice of bone that was covered in fatty layers of juicy meat. He roasted the meat with a flare of red chakra and ate it rapidly. He did this to all the meat in the ice block and turned and started round the house some more until he got to the bedroom where he kicked open the door, making it fly off its hinges, hitting the bedpost. He leapt up on the bedsheets and like the sofa, he ripped them to shreds, turning it into spurts of cotton instead of the luxery queen sized bed it had been before.

There were a stack of books on the bedside table, and feeling exhausted, he settled down and began to read rapidly as the Kyuubi assimilated the information with ease thanks to her gigantic intellect. Slowly his features drooped, his heart rate slowed, and the talons he had sprouted dimmed and reduced in size, but the finger nails were still unnaturally long. His teeth reduced in size as well, as did the red cloak of energy that surrounded his body but his height increased as he experienced an unnatural growth spurt, reaching five feet two. Not as tall as the people living in this city by taller than the norm for his age... if he had been in Konoha it would be considered tall. Here he was still puny.

The books all detailed various war plans and strategies, which the Kyuubi found interesting after nine years of isolation. Anything was good after a period of solitude lasting that long.

---

When Rassuel came home he was startled to see the house in the disgusting state of destruction it was in, and as he made his way from room to room, frowning at the sight of all his meat eaten and his ice box cut up animalistically, he found himself in the bedroom staring at the ten year old boy who had become suddenly taller. Said boy was sleeping, breathing deep and eyes closed. Whiskers longer. Hair redder. "What the hell happened here?" He said, cooly calmly and collectedly while he felt like screaming his head off.

Naruto awoke in an instant, eyes opening widely as he gazed around him. He repeated the question Rassuel had asked, in a slightly more confused tone.

"I don't know, you tell me," said Rassuel with anger. "I come home and find you've destroyed my house! Goddamit Naruto, you're supposed to be a good guest not some kind of maniac."

"I didn't mean to," protested Naruto, "I mean, I don't even remember anything..."

Then he heard a voice, soft, feline and catlike, chuckling softly. "Naruto, repeat everything I say okay? I promise I'll get you out of this alive, and give you all the power in the world you need."

In his mind, Naruto suspiciously asked, 'Who are you? Why should I trust you?'

"Just be calm Naruto and repeat what I say." Then a pause and the silky voice was back, sounding dangerous. "Rassuel, there's something I need to tell you, but before you say anything, promise me you'll listen fully. Do you promise?"

Naruto repeated everything the voice said, and watched Rassuel as the old retired warrior promised reluctantly. Then the voice came back on, continuing, "I am really from the past. See, there's a demon inside of me that's probably the most powerful being in the world, maybe even in the universe, and she's trapped inside of me. Well, something happened, and in an accident she made a portal that transported me into this world. I came through the musuem of history, you know, with all the ice statues and all."

Rassuel's eyes widened as he heard Naruto's explanation.

"Well, it turns out that the Kyuubi no Kitsune - that's her name - got out today and sort of ripped through the house in her bloodlust. She's really sorry for what she did and hopes to start a healthy alliance with you. Right now, she is communicating to you through me and I'm repeating everything she's saying from her prison."

"What the hell..." Rassuel said, pale from shock. He sat down on the floor, "It all makes sense now. I was at the library, doing research on Konoha... it all makes sense..."

"You need to help me," Naruto said, this time the voice was silent, "I don't know what I'm doing here, and you're my only hope now Rassuel. I need to get back to my own world and only you can help me."

"I'll try my best Naruto," Rassuel said after a while. "But I don't know anything about physics or time travel or portals. I don't know if I can help you."

"Just try your best okay?" Naruto said. "The voice is gone now, but it might return... she feels wierd. Evil. She hurts, Rassuel. I don't like her."

"The demon?"

Naruto nodded. "The seals are coming off, I can sense them inside of me. I need to get back soon so I can go to the Hokage. When I was small, he told me something important. I didn't understand it back then but I know it now."

"What did he say," prodded Rassuel when he saw Naruto wasn't speaking.

"He said, 'There'll come a time when you will change Naruto. You'll know the protective seals are coming off because you'll be able to feel the darkness surround you and engulf you. When that happens, come toe me immediately..." Naruto's voice trailed off and became distant.

"I'll help you, Naruto," said Rassuel. He sighed. "Come, let's go. I'll make some tea while we discuss and plan."

"Are you really going to help me?" Naruto said, eyes watering slightly.

"Yes, I'll do everything in my power to help you Naruto."

Konoha's resident pariah ran and swung his arms around Rassuel, pulling him in a tight hug. "Thank you... my friend." Naruto said.

Rassuel patted him on the back awkwardly, not used to such gestures of affection. "Naruto, remember this: the first rule of warfare is to always plan your actions. Let's go drink some tea, and relax. We'll plan out what we'll do."

"Okay," Naruto said, somewhat subdued. "I'm sorry for your house. It looks like crap."

Rassuel laughed it off, "I'm royalty, my good man. I can always buy a new one."

Naruto laughed along, "Seriously though, thank you old man."

Rassuel nodded, "No problem, demon boy."

Naruto stiffened but Rassuel didn't notice as he walked down the stairs. Relaxing, the demon container followed. Rassuel's joke had brought bad memories of being ostracised from the village, and the barbs and insults they had thrown at him. Bad memories. Nothing but memories. But even memories have a way of being real and to Naruto, what Rassuel said hurt more than any joke or barb from the villagers.

Because Rassuel was a friend, a precious person, and when he said it, the fact that Naruto was a demon container became real, and solidified in his mind. He finally figured out why the villagers had hated him so much. There was a Kyuubi sealed inside him! So the fourth Hokage hadn't killed it. Probably sealed it into a newborn. Naruto had been born on the same date the Kyuubi had been defeated. He had never paid any attention to that interesting little tidbit but now it came together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Naruto... was a demon.

"Hey Kyuubi," Naruto growled in his mind. "Talk to me."

No answer.

Naruto gave up on trying to talk to the nine tailed demon. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to talk with the Kyuubi. As he followed Rassuel through a narrow dark passageway with stone steps and flagged walls - brick tiles were coming off, displaying luxerient growths of slimy green liquids that were slowly causing stains to come on the pinkish stones of the passageways in the Ice Kingdom. Even in a place as beautiful as this (though nothing would be as beautiful as the sun setting on Konoha when he stood painting the Hokage monuments), there was corruption. Just like Konoha, this place had seeds of evil. Naruto had not faced them yet, but he could sense it just around the corner, a looming mass of darkness ready to pounce and beat him to a pulp... or worse. He hadn't encountered it yet but that didn't mean he wouldn't soon. Every place was corrupted.

They went to the kitchen where Rassuel took out a pot from a cupdoard that had its door ripped from his hinges and thrown haphhazardly on the kitchen dining table. He snapped his fingers as Naruto watched in amazement the pot started to fill up with clear water. Rassuel furrowed his brows and immediately the water began to boil. "The real power of ice is the control of temperature you know." Rassuel said. "Water is much easier to control temperature wise than air, or even harder, the earth. In olden days, the mysterious sage warriors could work wonders... now we have lost that art."

"I'll find it for you, Rassuel," Naruto said, grinning. "I'm going to be Hokage one day so I gotta help my precious people. Don't you worry."

Rassuel chuckled, outwardly amused, inwardly depressed. Naruto was just a little child and there was a burden placed on him: this demon... it was strong and powerful, it would come out, destroying everything. This ten year old boy was the only one that could stop the demon. After all the demon was INSIDE him.

Rassuel wasn't sure why he believed Naruto's strange tale except maybe the look in his scarlet tinged eyes, the slight movements of his hands, the tone of his voice. He was a good judge of character and had deemed Naruto honest. An ally. Though he was retired, with a grudge against his older sister the queen, he was still formidable. He would help Naruto. He had to because that's what friends did and it had been a long time since he had ever had a friend.

Naruto watched Rassuel take three tea bags from a small tinderbox and place them gently on the boiling water. They watched the tea swirl in the boiling water, and saw a yellowish orange color swirl around the tea, contaminating the entire pot of water with its beautiful and refreshing scent and color. "So what's the plan?" he asked.

Rassuel said nothing at first, instead opting to pick up two white cups from the pile of broken silverware and cutteltry that lay on the counter. One of them was jagged with cracks running down the middle. He used that cup for himself and gave the good one to Naruto. Pouring tea, he paused for a moment, as if hesitating before fully filling Naruto's cup, as if he had just come to a grave descision. He waited for some time, sipping tea in silence, and Naruto did the same. Finally, Rassuel began, "I do have a few ideas on what we could do."

"Really? Tell me! What is it?"

Rassuel raised a hand, "Calm down, young lad. We can't afford to lose ourselves to hasty movements and impulsive behavior. Now is a time that calls for precision in our descisions and movements. Listen to me, Naruto, listen well." Rassuel set the cup of tea down. "You are here in this kingdom, years in the future no doubt, and you are probably never going to see Konoha again."

"What?" Naruto whispered, startled eyes flashing red for the briefest second.

"I do not know how to get you back. But I do know what you must do now," Rassuel placed an arm on Naruto's shoulder. "You bear a grave burden. The entire safety of the world rests on your shoulders. Do you believe in God, Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head, "I don't, he never helped me when I asked so..."

"In a way, I think he did. He brought you here for a reason, young one. I am sure of it. So we will do two things from now on, to help you out, understand?"

"Okay..." Naruto said, unsure.

"First we must research your seals. The Art of Sealing is an ancient technique not used anymore but I have come across it once or twice. They say the hidden dragons are made out of seals, trapping the mystical energies of the universe and gathering them in the form of one type of creature but that's neither here nor there. I will study the art of sealing, and I will try to help you, Naruto, before its too late."

"Thank you," said Naruto, "You are a true friend."

Rassuel nodded and continud, "The second thing lies on you and you alone. One day somebody untrustworthy might find out your existence, and you will need to be able to protect yourself. You might even need to kill them." Rassuel ignored Naruto's gasp, and picked up the cup, as if scrutinizing the tea inside. "You must train yourself, young lad, in all the arts available around here. I can teach you a few basic exercises, but my time is limited."

"I'll train myself, don't worry, Rassuel." Naruto said. "You just need to guide me a bit, but I will get stronger." He said it with such force that Rassuel had no doubts.

"I am glad to hear it," said Rassuel. "Now go outside and meditate. I don't want to see you again until you can mold sand to perfection."

"B-but why?"

"Well, you need to be punished a little bit for what you did, right?" Rassuel said with a cheeky grin. "Beside, its going to be annoying to fix this place up and I don't want distractions when I am going to study the sealing arts."

Naruto's face brightened, "Alright old man. I'll study day and night! In fact, I won't sleep! I'll train every minute, I promise."

Rassuel sweatdropped. "Err... no need for that..." But it went unheard as Naruto raced outside in the hot desert sand.

Rassuel's eyes saddened as he looked at the orange form sitting cross legged on the ground. "The years are going to be hard on you Naruto... you don't belong here, and you never will. I know you will start to miss Konoha, but you got here by a freak accident and there's probably no hope of going back."

He turned away and headed back to the library.

----

The City of Ice was really a large island-continent seperated by a large ocean. On the other side, there was a giant land massed that housed three great kingdoms: the City of Wind, the City of Fire, and the City of Earth. The three kingdoms were constantly warring against each other because they lived so close to each other and the arguments that broke out (mostly over land) was inevitable. However, all three kingdoms possessed a hatred of the Kingdom of Ice, so when the Queen heard from her advisors that the three nations had allied each other, she was quite displeased.

"But why?" asked the Queen. "Do you have any idea what this means? They are all going to launch an assault at us for godsakes!"

"Please, calm down, we can-"

"How can you be so calm at a time like this? We're going to get killed unless we do something drastic... something that-"

"I know why they allied against us," said the Economics Minister. "Its because of the Ambassador. They heard about him and they fear for their safety, no doubt."

"Pah, the fire nation fears nothing in their arrogance and-"

"You are being foolish, Princess," said the Economics Minister, bolder than ever. "The Fire Nation is as cautious as anyone else, maybe even more than us. Their arrogance is merely an act. Inside they tremble with fear."

"How dare you call me foolish! I should have you-"

"Enough!" roared the Queen. "We need some drastic measures, anybody have ideas?"

"What do you mean, your highness?"

The Queen raored in rage, "War General! Do you not understand the implications of this event? This is the start of the sixth world war for godsakes, and this time we are all alone in this."

"We are a powerful nation," the War General's calm voice silenced the room. "We can take anything they throw at us as long as we use proper precautions."

"Besides, we can get Konoha on our side. Then the war is as good as ours and we will end up more powerful than ever."

"You are a fool," snarled the Princess. "War will not make us powerful, it will only make us weaker."

"She is right," said the War General. "We must avoid war if possible so I suggest you send diplomatic missions to the three great cities."

The Queen nodded, "Okay I shall, but who do you suggest?"

"Rassuel," said the War General at once. "He is a smart man, and a great teacher of mine. He taught me everything I know and I'm sure he can do the job as well as anybody else. Even better perhaps?"

"My annoying little brother?" The Queen didn't look happy. "Very well."

----

Rassuel finally found a book about seals from the library's antique section after scrounging through the place for hours. Honestly who knew there were so many old books stored up in the Ice Kingdom's library? The regular people who visited the library all looked curiously at Rassuel as he ran around like a bitch in heat but they ignored him after the amusement wore off. After all, reading was much more fun then staring at a grumpy old man.

As he opened the scroll of sealing, he examined the cover and what he saw made his heart turn cold: In spidery black handwriting over a cover yellow with age, it said: Guide to Seals by: Uzumaki Naruto

How is this possible? He wondered, The boy obviously didn't write this book so it had to be a Naruto from an alternate time line, or perhaps from a different dimension or perhaps... his mind whirled and this train of thought was making his head hurt. He started laughing suddenly, "Naruto, you're going to flip when you see this..." He put the book in the inner coat pocket of his jacket and hurried out of one of the tunnel doors to the grocery department, a cavern filled with frozen meats hanging by thin loopy strands of steel from ice covered ceilings, as well as a modicum of frozen vegetables. Vegetables were scarce nowadays but meat was not. Hunting was a great favorite among the people of the ice.

"I wonder how Naruto's doing," he said to himself as he waved at a few old retired friends he knew and as he filled his cart with food.

----

Naruto concentrated on his breathing, in, out, in, out, and as he did so he tried to imagine the sand around him. He tried to imagine it floating in little whirls around his seated figure like he was the eye in a hurricane. A center of calm and peace, while aroundh him the world spiralled out of control. His instincts told him to open his eyes, told him that something was happening: something was taking effect, and when he did open his eyes he saw the sand transversing around his figure in circles... a hurricane around him. Sand flew in his eye, but he barely even noticed as the hurricane of sand increased its intensity until it hit a line that couldn't be surpassed: the next level. Naruto's stamina was not great, not in controlling sand though generally his stamina was above average.

He didn't know how long he would train, he didn't even know what he was training for, not really. But deep inside him he had a feeling that one day, there would come a time when his training would pay off... and that time was not far away.

-----

The City of Ice had a population of about four thousand warriors, men and women, and about a thousand children. The children were kept in concentration camps or at least that's what they would have said the boarding schools were. In these schools they were taught the basics of their water and ice fighting arts, and they learnt to grow up to be warriors like their fathers and mothers. Some became healers, others became defense warriors, others front liners, and there was another sect who became teachers.

The people of Ice lived quite simply enough, and they had very few goals for themselves as individuals. Perhaps to survive the next coming year, or maybe to mate with a particularly "gifted" young lady, or take a strong man out for a whirl. Such thoughts pervaded through the minds of the youngsters, aged twelve to sixteen. At sixteen you were officially considered an adult.

In the Ice Kingdom, there was a small area that had no ice so to speak: only hot sand. It was the hottest part of the Kingdom and the most comfortable, and it was there that their leaders lived, in the Royal Square. Most people in the Royal Square were aloof and had too many duties to worry about so they couldn't exactly talk to the new ambassador, though the rumor mill was churning out its lies at a frenzy.

As such Naruto was quite lonely spending his days alone, meditating and trying hopelessly to mold the sand. So when a tall scarecrow like figure walked up to him, a women with black long hair and green eyes and fingers twice as long as a "normal" woman's, Naruto was surprised to say the least. He looked up when he felt her shadow upon him.

"Hello, Ambassador, I'm the Princess of the City of Ice," she said, smiling and she held out her hand. Naruto took it with wonder, and pulled himself up.

"Oh hey," said Naruto, "I've never seen you before."

"I get that a lot," she said. "Come on, let me give you a grand tour of the place."

Naruto didn't trust her at first, but when he saw that big bright smile on her face he just couldn't say no. "Sure, where are we going?" They walked up a winding spiral desert path toward a cylindrical metal object with one of those reddish black triangular doors. Naruto was burning with curiousity about these places so he decided now was the perfect time to ask some questions. "Hey how come all your houses are big on the inside but small on the outside? And how come you have triangle doors? And why do you-"

"Ambassador, please," the woman said, chuckling. "One at a time. First of all, these houses are magically produced, using great artitechual spells that have been sadly lost to us now for generations."

"How come?"

"The water folk built this, you know," she said, "And now they're all dead. We won!" She cheered brightly, but Naruto didn't want to smile. He thought that was a horrible thing to say but... she had a sort of charm about her that drew Naruto's eyes to her. Her fair skin, plentiful bossum and how the black robes she wore clung to her skin all made Naruto's head spin.

"She's a subbucus, Naruto," said a voice inside his mind, and Naruto immediately recognized it as the Kyuubi's. "What do you mean?" he axked the nine tailed demon, slightly surprised at how he could communicate with her.

"She's a cunning creature who entraps men into her spidery web. Do not trust her." The Kyuubi warned. "I know these creatures' ways, Naruto. You must be careful."

"T-thanks, I guess," Naruto said to the Kyuubi as he followed the Princess into the doorway and into a narrow gloomy tunnel. "what do you think she wants to show me?"

The Kyuubi's voice filtered through his mind: "I don't know." Talking to a demon - and the most powerful one in the world at that was kind of surreal for Naruto, but as he kept his eye on the Princess's back (and the lovely swaying hips as well) he thought about home, strangely enough. He thought about Sakura, and the boy crush he had on her, and he thought about how she liked Sasuke so much. Now, that time seemed so far away and Naruto had to face the fact that that world might be gone... and this is all there is left.

The passageway opened into a small room that had a marble staircase leading spirally to the top... a balcony perhaps? "Come on," said the Princess, giggling a bit. "I'll show you the best sights in the Ice Kingdom." She hurried up the stairs, taking it three at a time with her long legs and Naruto had to move fast to keep up. When they got there, Naruto looked around and gulped in awe. Everything, the entire balcony cavern type room was made of ice, and not only that, it glittered in the sun... and it did not melt. The two walls on either side stretched upward for miles. Behind him was the entrance to the stairwell, above was a dome ceiling of ice, just like the one in the Queen's Royal Dining Room. But in front of him lay no wall, no ice, nothing except a grand view of sand dunes below him, the two suns shining the jutted metal balls that sticked out from the sand so it glowed white hot. As far as the eye could see there was a fleet of these round metal things, where inside Naruto knew there were rooms that stretched the very edges of imagination. "Wow," said Naruto, "I didn't know there was so many... peopple living here..."

"There aren't," said the princess, "Before we invaded the Water kingdom, there were a lot of water tribes living here, but when we slaughtered them all... well..." she shrugged, grinning savagely.

"Err... Why though? Why did you kill the water people?"

"Conquest mainly, and bloodlust, I guess."

"That's terrible," protested Naruto. "Are there any water folk still alive?"

The Princess frowned for a moment, and scrunched up her forehead in thought. She pushed away a bit of the silky black hair that hanged down her face from her eyes and said, "I think there are some in the prison camps. But that's so deep in this continent, it would take weeks to get there by walking."

"Oh," said Naruto. "Why don't you free them?"

"Are you kidding me? They'll kill us all. They're very powerful you know. I honestly have no idea how my ancestors managed to defeat them. But enough talk, I brought you here for a reason."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

The Princess said nothing. She looked at Naruto with her glittering green eyes, and the Demon Container felt a spark go up his spine. His heart felt like bursting with heat, as if it were exploding. The Princess leaned forward and put her two soft hands on Naruto's shoulder. The boy felt his knees almost give way as if they were made of air. He stared into the Princess's eyes and felt himself float away as the Princess kissed Naruto on his lips. Immediately all sensations left his mind and he couldn't move an inch - he was frozen, not literally but inside he couldn't move, he couldn't even think as the Princess deepened the kiss. Vaguely Naruto felt her long (is the tongue forked like a snake? Naruto thought in some corner of his mind with remote shock) tongue slip into his mouth and he felt as if all his energy was being sucked out of him as if she were a vacum cleaner but then Naruto heard a voice floating to the outer fringes of his mind.

It was the Kyuubi no Kitsune and she might have sounded a bit jealous to Naruto if he had a bit more experience with women. "Naruto, she's drawing your presence from you! Break out of her spell now, or she will have complete control of you. Naaruutooo..." Her voice drifted away as Naruto slipped into the soft gentle floating sensation again. All his cares and worries were gone, the tension and fear and exhaustion he had felt over the past few weeks gone. Nothing but a feeling of being as light as a feather.

'Tell me your secrets...' a hissing voice commanded in his mind. It sounded like the Princess but she seemed very far away.

'I am the Kyuubi no Kitsune's demon container and I...' He was impelled to talk, he coudn't stop himself. Then a harsh fire that blew away the Princess's control over him came from his belly, a volcanic eruption of rage and hatred. Naruto found himself pushing away the Princess as reality swept over him like a tsunami. "W-what are you doing?" He asked her, outraged.

"Don't tell me you don't like it Ambassador," the Princess said, slightly startled but she quickly got a hold of herself and started to seductively lick her upper lip with her long silvery tongue. "Come on, lets do it again." She tried to move toward him but Naruto backed away.

"Don't," he said, sounding constrained. He didn't feel any lust right now, only an ocean of rage that he could barely keep a lid on. "I'm warning you... go away."

The Princess's soft features melted into an ice of hatred, "What kind of idiot are you? I am the Princess of Ice Kingdom, how dare you refuse-"

Naruto didn't even think about what he was doing, he raised one hand and slapped the Princess across the face, leaving a red handprint on her pale cheek, as well as four cuts that his long talon like finger nails had made along her smooth flesh. They reddened, blood spurted out of them, slowly at first, but Naruto thought he might have hit a minor artery or two in her face. "Don't come near me," Naruto said, iron like. He began to walk back down the stairs, but then he heard her wail and scream and he stopped like a string stretched to its fullest. He became taut and tight but as he heard her cry, his will weakened.

He started to go back ignoring the kyuubi's voice saying, "No, Naruto, what are you doing? Don't go-"

He moved forward, and instantly felt sorry for what he had done. "Listen, Princess, I apologize, I don't know what came over me but-" He moved impulsively to her and hugged her, and she let him. Her body was soft, tall yes, but she was on her knees so they were just the right height. Naruto had never hugged a girl before and it felt... nice. Even if she had tried to do something (he didn't quite know what that something was) he shouldn't have hit her. She was a woman for godsakes, what was he thinking?

"Naruto this is all an act she's just trying to get control over you." The Kyuubi's voice was drowned within a stream of regret and sadness for what he had done. He stood there hugging the Princess, saying over and over "I'm sorry" as he swayed side to side. But then he caught the smirk on her face from a reflection on the ice in the left wall and he felt as if he were doused in a bucket of cold water. His apologies went cold, and he stopped everything as his arms loosened in realization. She was just using him... her smirk, the hateful sort of smirk, the evil kind of smirk that he had seen on many villagers faces... he knew that glint in the eyes, he knew that crooked sort of smile and the scrunched up features because he had been on the recieving end of it one too many times. He felt sickened with himself suddenly... 'It's all an act. How could I fall for it... all the niceness these people have shown me has all been a trick. They probably want something from me...'

He pulled away from her and turned and walked back down the stairs - ran as fast as he could. He fell to his face over the last few steps but he quickly got up and walked out of the door where the hot air of the outside greeted him full in the face. In there it had been cold as a graveyard, here it was hot as a barbeque pit. He ran, tears streaming down his face. He should have known not to trust these people. Nobody was nice to him, nobody. And if they were they probably wanted something from him. How could he have been so stupid? How could he have fallen for their tricks just at the sight of free food, and clothing and lodging? He was sick of himself, "I'm so fucking dumb." He said aloud as he ran into the house and hid away in the shade of the inside. He went through a door he remembered as the bathroom (and what an exaggerated bathhouse it was) and he ran in there. He peeled off his sweaty orange suit of clothing. Jumping in the cold soothing water of one of the pools, he swam underwater for a bit to hide the tears on his face. He didn't even want to see or feel himself cry. He didn't want to know how much he could be hurt on the inside. They were using him, they needed something from him. They didn't really like him, nobody did.

But what about Rassuel? He asked himself. The old man seemed nice enough right? Can I trust him? What choice do I have though? These thoughts whirled inside his mind. He suddenly knew what to do, it hit him like a hammer throw. He had to undo the damages these people had caused to the water tribe. And even more, he had to EARN respect. He couldn't just expect respect to be given freely, like these people had done. Sure, they had treated him like he was important and he liked that, he really did after the treatment in Konoha. But it was fake respect. Fake importance. If he was going to be Hokage, he would have to earn TRUE respect. Actions speak louder than words, right? He thought to himself as he swam in circles around the thirty feet swimming pool. To the tall people of Ice, these swimming pools were more like bathtubs. Luckily nobody was in here because judging from the size of this place as well as the number of pools this was probably a public bath house open for everyone.

I know a way I can earn respect, he thought. I can free the water people from their prisons. That way they will respect me for sure! As he muddled over his new idea, he found that he was a bit confused. Can I trust Rassuel? He thought. He certainly couldn't do it alone, could he? He didn't even know where the prisons were! But Rassuel was a retired war general and he probably knew. But what if he was in on this too... what if he was just acting as well?

I will need to find a way to test him, he thought. I need to test his loyalty, but how?

As he thought hard about this, a certain Princess made her report to her Queen.

---

"I had to get past something huge, a great force of power that was blocking my spell but after I did it was easy. For a time it almost didn't work but I got the Ambassador good. Like a fish, hook line and sinker," said the Princess. They were seated in the Queen's meditation chamber, an oasis of greenery and a small freshwater pond in the middle. Palm trees dropped coconuts and the date trees dropped dates. The Queen sat cross legged on the grass in front of the pond, where fishes swam in spirals. The Princess said all this to the Queen's back.

"I see. Let me tell you something interesting, Princess Nomi." She used her name to show that this was very important. "I have placed bugs in my younger brother's home, where the Ambassador was staying and I picked up some very useful information. Now listen, and don't interrupt," she said just as the Princess was about to open her mouth and say something.

How did she do that? The Princess wondered. The Queen wasn't even looking at me.

"I'm the Queen for a reason," she said, chuckling.

Damn, she can read my mind?

"Now pay attention. First of all, the ambassador's name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I found out your uncle's name as well." The reflection on the pond showed the Queen's eyes glittering in triumph. "Rassuel."

"Amazing," said the Princess. "Now you can kill them and they will be out of your hair for good."

"But why? I want to observe what Naruto does. Rassuel on the other hand has always been a menace. He won't be part of this world for long, I assure you."

"Is there anything else?" said the Princess. "It appears I'm running late for dinner with one of my suitors."

"Those boys? Pah, you'll marry who I say you will marry, understood?" The Princess glared at the Queen's back.

"I said, is that understood?" The Queen's voice was sharp and clear, and Princess Nomi had no choice but to sigh and say that yes, she did understand, as humbly as possible. "Good," continued the cunning Queen, "Another useful piece of information I found was that Naruto Uzumaki travelled through a portal from the past, at a time when the great Uchiha Itachi was merely a teenager."

"What?" Princess Nomi choked out, "Impossible."

"I believe it is very much possible," the Queen said, "Even more possible is there is a great demon sealed within the boy that gives him all his strength. This accounts for his extraordinary powerlevel. I knew there was a rational reason for it. Apparently the boy can't use the Kyuubi - that's the demon's name - and he's just that, a little ten year old boy. Not even an ambassador." She spat on the pond in disgust.

"Do you understand, Nomi?"

"Yes, that was the buffer that made it so hard to get Naruto under my control." The Princess gulped, "It makes sense," she said. "You are as always, the best, mother."

"Thank you, dear, now what do you think I should do?"

"You're asking me for advice?" The Princess was shocked, her mother never asked for advice, ever.

"Certainly, you are going to take my place one day right? You should get some input in my descision making."

"Okay," Nomi began uncertainly, "First we should just wait and see because I think that Naruto can get control of himself back easily. In fact, I think he already has. The buffer - the demon was powerful."

"You didn't tell me that," the Queen said, a hint of cold reproach in her voice.

"I was going to fix that little problem right away after I reported to you."

"So there is no suitor for dinner is there?"

"No," said the Princess, shamed she had been caught in her lie, but not too shamed. The Queen always knew what was going on in her life.

"Well, continue with your thoughts."

"I think," said Nomi slowly, "that they'll try something. It's just a feeling I have, but as you know a succubus's feelings are usually correct."

"Yes, in fact I was thinking the same thing. Rassuel is researching something in that damn library of his. I have yet to find out what."

"If they do try something, you can hire a name assassin to kill them off."

"Correct, you are learning well Princess."

"Thank you, your highness," said the Princess. "I think we'll just have to wait and see what they will do."

"I concur," said the Queen. "Dismissed. No more suitors, please."

"In your dreams, mother," she said with a tinkering laugh as she sped away.

The Queen sighed and turned her attention back to the fishes in the pond. Her annoying little brother would be swimming with them soon, if she had anything to say about it.

-------

AN: Wow, I'm writing this faster than I thought... plot is moving ahead now at a faster pace. What do you guys think?


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: Journey through the Sand

Naruto got out of the pool and dried himself with a pearly white towel scattered on the tiled floor. He recognized it as the same wettish one he had used the other day but as he dried himself with it, avoiding the newly folded dry towels he realized that he did not like all this luxury. He wasn't used to it, and it all seemed so wasteful. Back home he only had three orange jumpsuits, not the vast amounts of brown robes to wear that these people had, or these swimming pools. That was one thing he didn't miss about Konoha, but thinking of his village made his heart ache with nostalgia. Even though he wasn't treated very nicely there he still liked it, he still remembered the orange glow of the sunset as he sat on the Hokage monument with a bowl of hot noodles in his hand, and his belly full with ramen. Those were the good old days. Now he had to fight and struggle but that was okay; he didn't mind. Fighting made him grow stronger. That was why he avoided luxury now. He threw the wet towel on the ground, and instead of taking a clean brown robe he picked up his sweat ridden orange jumpsuit.

On second thought I don't think so, Naruto thought, as he smelt the reek of his old clothes. Reluctantly he put on the brown robe, and was surprised at how comfortable it was. Sure he had worn one of these a few days ago but only for the dinner at the Royal Dining Room with the Queen, but somehow this felt softer. Perhaps it was because of how long he had swam in the water. Was that even water? It looked… cloudy somehow.

Thinking of the Queen and the creepy dinner made his heart go cold, he didn't like the Queen much. She just came across as someone not to be trusted and Naruto always trusted his instincts. They had saved him in many situations after all.

"I wonder what Rassuel is doing now?" He thought to himself. He already had a loyalty test prepared in mind but that would need to wait until Rassuel came home. Then after the loyalty test if the old veteran passed they would journey to the Ice Kingdom Prisons and free the water people trapped in there. It was Naruto's duty. Rassuel had told him there was a reason he was here, something about God, right?

Well, now Naruto knew. And now that he had a good reason, he felt new strength in his limbs, allowing him to move rapidly through the house. He found a suitcase in one of the cupboards, an old wooly thing, and he put as many of those brown robes he could find in it. He left the orange jumpsuit. Let them have it, he thought, as payment.

Even if it turned out that Rassuel couldn't be trusted, Naruto was still prepared to journey by himself to rescue the Water People and once he did he could ask them to train him in all that they knew. Then he would be ultra powerful and nobody could stop him and he could become Hokage! Yeah! With a bright grin on his face he filled old woolskin water bottles (it was surprising how much junk Rassuel had collected over the years in his house) with crystal clear water. He would need it to journey through the desert.

What else… oh yeah, I need some food, Naruto thought and went to the kitchen, looking in the Ice Box. There was meat, but Naruto wouldn't pack it now, he would wait for Rassuel to come. He sat on the sofa, a nice leather one that was cold which suited Naruto well because outside it was hotter than ever. Closing his eyes, he clasped his fingers together and took in a deep breath. Letting it out, he started to meditate.

---

The Kyuubi was intensely frustrated. She thought she had been doing good, her plans seemed to be working. The seal was weakening and she had been happy, full of bright hope that would not be amiss in Naruto. But then… the stupid little boy started meditating and the seal became stronger again. When he meditated she weakened, her hold over the mindscape came loose and she felt herself revert back to her previous prison: the sewers and the cage. To get out of the cage had taken an immense effort that she probably couldn't do again: it was just too painful. But after the cage there was the mindscape, and after the mindscape, what else? It was like a video game, with the sewers at the first level and freedom at the last level. Now she was losing. Just for a second, she flashed back into the sewers again, and it was all she could do to keep from panicking. Panicking made it worse she had found.

She would have to match the boy in meditation, and concentrate upon her freedom but the boy was surprisingly good at meditating, and the demon was surprisingly bad at it. Her unstable chakra made it hard for her, and being trapped like this wasn't helping. There was a reason she was always enraged, and that was because of her demonic chakra. Now Naruto on the other hand was just plain dumb. That was why he was so good at meditating: its easy to stop thinking when you don't think too much in the first place!

'Come on, Kitsune, concentrate…' she told herself, and began to think calming serene thoughts as she imagined herself in a tranquil environment of bliss, a haven for a kitsune like her.

---

Rassuel entered through the doorway that led into the library, and the first thing he saw as he entered his house was Naruto's blue eyes glaring at him. "Yo, Naruto…" he said, startled.

"Rassuel, tell me something," Naruto said seriously and Rassuel knew something had happened. Naruto was never this serious.

"What is it, Naruto?" He asked in concern. "What's wrong?"

"Is it true your people killed the Water Tribe?"

"W-what? Who told you that?"

"Just answer the question," Naruto said grounding each word soundly. Rassuel felt scared for the first time in his life – he was always calm even when facing grave danger as a general. He could barely breathe. In fact, he felt the same way like when the Queen, his elder sister, had put the spell on him to make him shorter, to disgrace him. As if to taunt him, saying, haha, I killed father and I'm the Queen now! You can't do anything about it!

He remembered how scared he was back then, fearing for his life, and how angry he was at his disgrace, but now, Naruto's glare inspired fear in him that was nothing like before. Killer intent… he thought loosely… laced with demon chakra… He gulped and saw Naruto was waiting patiently for an answer.

"I-yes, Naruto, its true."

"I heard there were water people being kept in prisons. Is that true?"

Rassuel was about to say, no, of course not, but that would have been a lie. He saw where Naruto was going with this: the boy wanted to rescue them, no doubt. But he remembered the water people, because he had fought them once when they made an escape from their prisons. Now to free them was madness but… Rassuel owed the boy this... Rassuel owed the boy his loyalty, because he was sure the boy was here for a reason. He was sure that Naruto had a destiny here to fulfill, and so, he nodded.

Naruto asked his final question, Rassuel knew it was final because he saw the glint of a butcher knife behind Naruto's back, reflecting off a bent spoon that lay on the ground, a remnant of Naruto's destruction of the house. He saw Naruto tense, as if preparing himself to strike soon. Yup, this was final and he had to answer it correctly or he was in grave danger. "Will you come with me? To rescue them I mean?"

Rassuel looked Naruto in the eyes, brown eyes met blue, and he nodded slowly. "If that's what you want, then I will help you."

Naruto relaxed and Rassuel breathed in a deep sigh of relief. "That was a test you know," Naruto said, "I wanted to see if you would help me. If not…" He trailed off but he had the good grace to flush red as he tossed the knife on the floor. Shrugging, he apologized. "Come on, pack your things, we need to go soon. The Princess was here, and she's evil and she tried to control me and-"

"Naruto, calm down. If we are going to do this, we must plan our actions carefully. That is after all, my first rule of war. Planning, planning, planning! Always wins the war!" Rassuel spoke fast in good cheer, trying to smoke out the feeling he had before… how he had been so frightened. He never wanted to feel like that again, and he tried to hide the fact that he was scared with optimistic happiness. It was fake, and he thought even Naruto seemed to know but the young boy didn't choose to comment.

Young boy…? No, he's something greater. He's a warrior in training, thought Rassuel.

"Come on, let's pack," said Rassuel, "I'll tell you the plan while we do it, okay?"

Naruto grinned, "You're the boss!"

"Heh, haven't been that in a while," said Rassuel. "Wow, my old suitcase." He opened the brown suitcase, which lay on the threshold between the living room and the kitchen. On top of it were three waterskin bottles filled with water. "You packed clothes. What about food?"

"I was hoping you'd pack that," said Naruto, "Don't know how."

"Not to worry, let me show you a nice trick." Rassuel pointed both hands at the Ice box filled with frozen food, arms extended outward like the branches of a tree. He waved them around, and made a small humming sound at the back of the throat. Naruto looked with startled eyes as the icebox began to shrink into a minisclule object. It was small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Rassuel went over to it and put it in one of his many pockets of his robe. "I think we are all packed. What we are going to do is forbidden, Naruto and once we do it, we will become convicts. We are taking a great risk, are you sure you want to…?"

Naruto nodded, "Its my destiny." He said.

"Very well," Rassuel began. "You carry everything then."

"W-what?"

"I'm the boss remember?" Rassuel said with a cheeky grin. "Come on, let's go."

The two of them headed out into the desert and Rassuel began explaining the plan. "This desert stretches on for about six miles, so it will be a lot of walking."

"How much?"

"Two days if we don't go at nights and rest."

"Then let's continue at the night as well," said Naruto, "So we have a head start."

"I need my rest, and so do you," said Rassuel, shaking his head. "No, we need to sleep at night. But the day lasts for a long time. Thirty six hours is good enough."

"Are there any wild animals around here?" asked Naruto.

"Yes, actually there are," he said, using his bent up fingers to count. "Lets see… venomous snakes, check, giant rhino-birds, check, minor dragon families, oh yeah…" he trailed off and turned to look at the boy. "Its going to be dangerous," he said.

"Bring it on!" said Naruto.

They walked into the desert for an hour and nobody was around. By then Naruto was almost regretting his descision. "What happens when we run out of water?" He asked.

"Don't you worry about that, I can summon some from the underground," said Rassuel.

"Cool, will you teach me how to do it too?"

"Well… I suppose I can give you a few lectures as we walk. It will certainly pass the time," said Rassuel. "Now lets start with ice. When I was a general in the war, my favorite spell of attack was the icicle shooter. Here, I'll show you how to do it." Rassuel stepped back, the two suns beating down his back. They were surrounded by a vast ocean of sand, dunes rising up and down. It felt hot under their feet and Naruto was lucky he was wearing sandals because right now it was midday and the sand was usually scorching at this time.

They kept pacing away from each other, "A little bit further," called out Rassuel. "Okay that's good. Get ready to dodge!"

"What?! Wait, stop I'm not ready!" Naruto cried out.

Rassue held up his two hands palms facing up and clenched his eyes shut. In each hand an icicle grew, slowly, sharp pointing. Rassuel opened his eyes and threw them at Naruto's feet with blurring speed. If the Demon Container wasn't so adept at dodging he might not have feet anymore to worry about the scorching sand.

"Wow," Naruto said. "That's…"

"Destructive, right? With this spell I was able to single handedly blow up an entire fire navy ship."

"How big are they?" Naruto asked. "I mean, sure your technique was good, but it wasn't… explosive."

"I could have made it explosive," said Rassuel. "Watch this." This time, he concentrated on his left hand, and held a red icicle. He threw it right at the sun and it landed in an arc some distance away where there was a huge explosion, making a giant mushroom of sand and dust rise into the air. When it cleared, there was a crater of melted sand. Naruto looked at this with awe. "Amazing."

"Right so as I was saying, its my favorite technique. You should learn it as fast as you can."

"Okay, show me again how to do it," Naruto said eagerly. Rassuel chuckled and began his instructions. "First, go into horse stance, keep those knees bent and arms nice and easy. Okay good. Now concentrate on your stomach."

"My stomach? What does that have to do with-"

"Naruto, listening is a skill you need to develop," Rassuel said with a sigh. "Okay again, go into horse stance. Listen to your inner chakra, your rise and fall of your breathing, the energy swirling in your body. Focus on the stomach, that's where the storehouse of energy is collected, and make it rise to your hands."

"Nothing's happening," Naruto said, cracking open an eye. "Are you sure this is how you do it, old man?"

"I'm not that old," Rassuel said. "Of course I'm sure. I invented this technique, didn't I? So stop yabbering and pay attention, understand?"

"Yes sir!"

"Good, I like to hear that." Rassuel said, "Now again, concentrate, feel the energy rise to your shoulders, go through the limbs, into your hands. Now imagine ice. Think of all the ice you have seen over the last few days and feel your energy move out of you but as it does, try to make it colder and colder."

"I think you're fooling me, Rassuel," Naruto growled. "Nothing's happening."

Rassuel sighed. "That's because you still don't have full control over your mind. You need to meditate more."

"But for how long? I'm getting frustrated of meditating. I'm sick of it!"

"Then I guess you are sick of learning new techniques, huh? You honestly have the worst energy control I have ever seen." Rassuel leaned toward him and whispered, "I think its because of you-know-what."

"The Kyuubi?"

"Shh, keep your voice down!" Rassuel said sharply.

"Why, there's nobody around us anyways." Naruto said, looking around all he could see was sand rolling on the dunes endlessly to the horizon.

"There might be… things listening to us. Ugly things," Rassuel said. "I heard rumours before of ghosts floating around in the desert. It's a horrible place out here, I tell you."

Naruto snorted. 'Ghosts? They don't exist!"

Thunder rumbled over head. Naruto looked up sharply, and his eyes widened as he saw the sky was already overcast, completely blocking out the dual suns that once shined so bright. Everything darkened. "You've done it now, Naruto!" Rassuel exclaimed. "Come on, take cover! To the dune over there."

"What's going on?" Naruto asked as they ran. "What's happening?" In his fright he left the bags.

"I don't know," yelled out Rassuel, "Whatever it is, it doesn't bode well for us."

They climbed over a dune and huddled there, protected by a mound of sand. "What should we do?" asked Naruto as they looked at a whirlwind of sand rising up like a column. Far away…

It was getting closer.

"Tornado!" yelled out Rassuel. "Hurry up, run! Run Naruto, its heading straight for us."

They started running, pounding their legs against the sand, running away from the tornado. The whirlwind cut through the sand like it was nothing and headed for them like a creature intent on hunting down its prey. They went left, the tornado followed hot on their heels. They tried right, tornado still followed.

"This is no normal tornado," Rassuel said, panting as they ran.

"Yeah," Naruto yelled out. "Its following us."

"I know what it is," Rassuel said grimly. "One of the Queen's spells."

"W-what? They know already?"

"We need to find a way to dispel it or else it will hound us forever."

"F-f-forever?"

"Yeah, do you know how to overload a place with chakra?"

"No."

"Well, now you're going to learn," Rassuel said. "Horse stance! Focus chakra on your hands and push outward, together on three. One, two-"

"Wait, I don't know how!"

"Well learn now, because if we can't do this we're dead. One, two, three!" The tornado made their way straight toward them, trying to overrun them head on. They turned, stopped, hands out, pushed out chakra. Naruto didn't even know what he was doing, he just pushed outward as desperately as he could, his heart hammering, sweat beads running along his temple. His hands suddenly felt red hot and as he pushed, he cracked an eye open and saw his hands were glowing with reddish swirls, with black lightning intermixed. Between his hands he clutched a ball of reddish black demonic energy. As the tornado came closer, Rassuel fell to the sand, gasping out, "I can't do this, Naruto, I don't have enough chakra left. It's all on you now!"

His desperation increased. Pushing more energy into the ball, he watched with fascination as it grew larger. Then he thrust himself toward the tornado, an act that took all the courage he had from him. He tumbled over, flipped to his feet and watched as the ball of swirly black red energy collided with the tornado. There was a great white flash, he covered his eyes with the back of his hands as he heard an explosive_boom!. _

Then there was a stillness and silence so calm and foreboding, Naruto felt weak in the knees. He didn't think he could keep standing because he felt so exhausted. But he felt relief as he looked at the sky: it was completely clear and the two dual suns shined white like they always did, little helix shaped dust ball light thingies landing on his face in columns. He heard clapping sounds, and turned around to see Rassuel with a big shit-eating grin on his face, eyes twinkling with laughter. "You invented your own technique, Naruto!"

"The-the queen," Naruto panted out, completely beat. "She's gonna die."

"Well… about that," Rassuel nervously chuckled as he rapidly explained, "I made the tornado. It was a test to see how you could-"

"WHAT?!"

"Aaaah!" Rassuel shouted as he ran wildly with Naruto on the chase, blood red eyes flashing angrily.

---

As they trudged along, Naruto asked Rassuel what he should call his new super technique. "How about, Uzumaki Ball of Destruction?"

Rassuel groaned, "I bet you can't even do it again, Naruto. It was just a fluke, that's all."

"I bet I can!" yelled out Naruto. "Let me show you."

Rassuel rolled his eyes. "Alright, go for it."

Naruto bent his knees into the stable and firm horse stance. Arms extended outward, he closed his eyes and tried to make the energy rise from his belly and through his shoulders and into his hands. He cracked one eye open, "Its not working," he said confused. "How come?"

"Dunno," Rassuel shrugged. "Anyways, this desert is tiring me out. How about a break, huh?"

"No, I need to get this technique to work," Naruto said. "It's the only one I can do and I will need it if I am going to defeat the Queen."

"What? Defeat the Queen?"

"Yeah, I think I have to if I am going to rescue the water people."

"Naruto… you don't just walk up to the Queen and defeat her. She's the most powerful one of us in the ENTIRE Ice Kingdom. You don't get to be queen for nothing you know."

"Yeah, so I need to become even more powerful!" yelled out Naruto, "So come on, teach me a new technique."

"You haven't even mastered sand molding," Rassuel said, feeling a headache coming on. "What makes you think you can learn another technique if you can't even-"

"Hey, I killed your tornado didn't I?"

"Naruto, that was a fluke, nothing more. A piece of good luck on your part."

"No, I am stronger than that! I am Rassuel!" Naruto said, tears stinging his eyes. "I'm not weak," he muttered.

"I never said you were, Naruto," whispered Rassuel. "You are one of the strongest people I know, and for a ten year old child what you did wasn't too bad."

"You really mean that?" asked Naruto, wide eyed, sky blue eyes piercing into Rassuel's very soul.

"Of course I do. Naruto… you are like a son to me, I have to tell you. I will train you well, but you need to have patience."

"O-okay," Naruto said. "I trust you."

Rassuel smiled softly, "Well, why not?" It was as if he were saying this to himself. "Okay, fine I'll teach you a new technique."

"Really?" Naruto grinned widely, "Yahoo!" He started jumping around. Rassuel groaned.

"What have I just done…"

"Come on, teach me right now!"

"I'm tired Naruto, and the suns are beginning to get to me," he said, lying down. "Its time for my nap." Snapping his fingers, Naruto watched with amazement as the sand rose up and made a dome tent over him, cooling him with shade.

"Wow! How did you do that?" Naruto said, a little too loudly.

"Shut up, sleep time." Rassuel said.

"Go nap then, I guess, I'll learn how to do what you did."

"Ya? Good luck buddy." With that Rassuel was silent, and soon Naruto could hear snoring through the sand-tent.

'How did he mold the sand so well? What am I missing here?' Naruto asked of himself, 'I need a technique to… no, I need a strategy to learn sand molding. If I can't learn this basic technique, how can I free the water people…? They are counting on me, so I have to learn this!'

Naruto sat down and stared at the dome tent surrounding Rassuel. He was sweaty and hot, so he drank a few sips from one of the bottles. He stared up at the sky, and its two suns and drifted off into a day dream….

In it, Naruto was in Konoha and he was reading the Forbidden scroll of seals, trying to master a technique called Kage Bunshin. As he read and mastered this technique, Mizuki, one of his Academy teachers came down and tried to kill Iruka and himself. This dream seemed very real, as if he had already experienced it at some point in his life… but he hadn't. Then Iruka gave him a headband that signified he was a Konoha ninja.

But… it was only a dream, probably brought on by the thirst. Still, it felt so real. Naruto frowned and sat up, and stared dreamily at the tent. Konoha… will I ever see my village again? He thought. He missed it, missed the Academy, the ramen, everything. I'm going to come back, Naruto thought. I'll become a Hokage one day, whatever it takes. I will come back to Konoha, and Konoha will acknowledge me, and I will become…

"HOKAGE!" Naruto yelled out unexpectedly.

"What the hell? I'm trying to sleep here!" Rassuel said, annoyed.

"Oh sorry, got carried away," muttered Naruto, "Go back to sleep." Rassuel huffed and did exactly that.

Naruto lay on the scorching sand with two hands clasped behind his head, and stared up at the sky… Konoha… he thought. I miss you.

There was a small fluffy white cloud floating high above, probably the only cloud in the entire hot desert. Naruto thought the cloud looked like Sakura. "Sakura," he whispered. "I love you. When I come back… I'll be powerful and strong… and you'll love me back."

Closing his eyes, Naruto drifted off to sleep.

---

"Naruto, wake up!" Rassuel said harshly as he shook Naruto awake. "Hurry, we need to get out of here." Naruto's eyes fluttered open.

"Huh? What's going on?"

"Sit up Naruto, get the bags, lets go."

It was nightfall, and Naruto could see stars littering the sky, an endless array of them shining brightly above. His eyes gazed at Rassuel, whose face was milky white with fear. "W-what's happening?"

"We're going to be attacked," Rassuel snapped. Naruto clammered to his feet. "Let's go, goddamit!"

Then Naruto heard the beating of wings and when he looked behind him he saw an entire army of glowing bees headed straight for him!

Only they were as big as elephants. No big deal.

"Run!" Rassuel yelled out. "Leave the goddamn bags!"

The bees made "zzz" noises as they swooped down at the pair. Naruto's heart hammered in his chest, he was under attack!

"Naruto what are you doing?" yelled out Rassuel when Naruto stopped and turned to face the giant creatures whizzing at them. He got into horse stance, extended his arms.

"UZUMAKI BALL OF DESTRUCTION!" He felt a fierce rush of hot energy rise in his belly and through his arms, and opening his eyes, he grinned with triumph as the ball of swirling red black energy expanded between his hands… and exploded in his face. He was sent catering off through the air, his left hand completely shattered to bits, blood spurting from his wrist down.

"Oh fuck…" Rassuel groaned as Naruto landed on the sand, screaming in pain. He looked at the approaching fleet of gigantic bees, honey layers of yellow looping around their pencil thin black bodies, wings of spidery web like flesh barraging through the air, bulbous black eyes locked menacingly on their targets, stingers out and ready to pierce.

Rassuel gulped, and letting out a deep breath he clenched his fists tight and locked them together in front of his diaphragm by the knuckles. Taking a deep breath through the mouth, he flashed back to his previous learning during his many nightly forages in the library: fire spells.

"Heidon Dragon!" He yelled out. A white light filled his throat, reaching upward from his stomach and expanding outward from his mouth. He let loose a wave of white fire that sizzled through the night air, taking on the army of bees.

The bees dodged most of the blast but almost a quarter of them fell to Rassuel's onslaught of fire. They looped in circles around the old warrior's continuous fire blasts, dodging as fast as they could. Heading toward the injured Naruto, they picked him up by piercing their stingers through his brown robes and flew away, carrying him to their underground hives.

Rassuel stood there, panting hard from exhaustion as despair washed over him like a tidal wave. Naruto was gone, kidnapped by these monstrous creatures and now he knew he had two options left: find Naruto, or go back.

But the Queen must know of his disappearance. Did he really want to face his big sister who had caused him so much pain and hurt? No, death by the giant bees would be a far better fate than whatever cruel punishment she would pose. Besides, he liked the little guy, and so deciding he would plant a rescue operation on young Uzumaki Naruto, he fell to his knees in exhaustion. "I'm coming for you Naruto… after a nice long naaaap." He yawned and closed his eyes, sleeping in a fetal position, completely drained of energy.

----

Naruto felt a slight sting in his upper arm, and then a vast ocean of drowsiness overcame him, making him feel so tired and so sleepy. Despite his panic and fright, he started to close his eyes, drifting off into a poisoned drugged sleep. Suddenly, he shot his eyes open, panic settling in once again, heart thudding against his chest, as he looked around. He saw sand dunes below him, and around him he heard the buzzing of the bees. It was early morning when he had waken up but it seemed to him he had slept for only a moment. Certainly he didn't get any rest. Around him the bees were watching him from the corners of their bulgy eyes, looking at him with greed and hunger. Naruto gulped and tried to move his arms, but he found he could not. He was paralyzed.

Where are they taking me? He wondered as they flew over the sand, somewhere hidden no doubt, or else they would have long been hunted down and killed. At least that's what Naruto would have done. These bees were carrying him by his robe, and he was scared he would fall if the serge of the robe tore. Kidnapped by vicious creatures. This was certainly not the death of a Hokage – or a future Hokage like him anyways. The bees swooped down into the sand and _skidded _through it like a knife, kicking up rows of sand on either side that looked like slanted walls.

Wait, I know what to do, thought Naruto. Maybe I can mold the sand to create a barrier, a sort of wall that they can't pass… no, that won't work because they'll just fly over it. Perhaps a sort of sand trap… but how?

As he thought about his plan he found it was unnecessary: the bees were already there at their destination. They approached a circular pit that was perfectly round, a darkness inside the pit that filled Naruto's bones with cold pain, and as they swooped down into the pit one at a time, Naruto first, Naruto could feel himself scratching the walls like sandpaper. He felt the slimy ooze that ran down it, the coldness that was colder than ice itself, much hotter than the desert certainly, as well as a greenish tinge of light that Naruto couldn't place its origins. This tunnel led to the bees' haven, their kingdom. The fright in his chest grew so terribly he felt he couldn't breathe. Perhaps it was the atmosphere, a sort of rotten fruit smell that seemed to close in around him and suffocate him. Perhaps it was the buzzing sound of millions and millions of bees as they entered a cavernous cave filled with bees flying at top speed this way and that.

Oh fucking hell, thought Naruto as his captors approached a mound of dark mud that looked sort of like shit, except with holes in them just like the tunnels outside. Where were they going to take him? As far as he could see, there was only one mound like this… perhaps the Queen bee?

Dammit, he thought. He had enough of queens for one lifetime, not another one to escape from…

They descended into the tunnels: a labyrinth, a maze of passages that were lit up by silver crystals encrusted into the sides of the muddy walls. Naruto tried to memorize the turns and twists but could not, he lost track of it. Perhaps if he were a genius he could have done so but his intellectual capacity was, to say the least, not too much.

He realized a faint tingling sensation coming from his left hand, and when he craned his neck to get a good look, he almost fainted in disbelief: the hand was completely gone. What he was feeling was nerves, the last of the nerves that had been severed at the wrists. His body apparently still thought the left hand existed. Certainly he could _feel _it, but his eyes told him differently.

The tunnel they were passing through opened into a room as big as Rassuel's house, perhaps even bigger, and it looked sort of like a house too, except the furniture was made of yellow-green slime. Little blobs for chairs, big blobs for beds, and everywhere he could see, Naruto saw that there were eggs, sitting on the blobs, rising and falling like they were breathing. He also heard a cacophony of heart beats, lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, over and over again, repeated by the thousands of eggs situated on the green blobs in this cave like room.

Naruto felt afraid, even more so when the bees dropped him on the floor and hurried out. He was all alone, the room lit up in silver by the strange crystals, the heart beat sounds, it was enough to drive a man crazy. Then he felt a slow sinking sensation on his legs and looking down, he saw that there was no floor: it was a swimming pool of green slime he was standing on, and he was sinking. Below, he saw through the semi-transperant slime little bodies, already decayed, floating along deep inside. This slowly made sense to Naruto: the eggs got their food from the green slime. And Naruto was food for the bees.

Now Naruto wished for a Queen instead, that would make things so much easier. Luckily for him, his wish was answered at once as he heard a hissing sound that pervaded over the heart beats. A black snake that twisted and turned like the tunnels Naruto had come from made the hissing sound. It was long, and its muscles were tightly tensed. It came from beneath the depths of the pool of slime, a long black worm with cat-slit eyes the color of rubies focused on Naruto's still form. As Naruto caught the black snake's gaze, he felt his heart stop beating; he felt his metabolism and breathing slow to a crawl, all his thoughts and feelings… shut down. All struggling and fighting gone. Sinking… sinking… sinking… Closing his eyes so as not to see the silvery light, and because it felt better, he found himself accepting his fate of being sunk into the gunk of nutrition sucking slime despite the small part of himself that protested heavily at his fate, that said, NO, I MUST BE HOKAGE! That part of him seemed far away, a radio signal fading out.

He slept.

----

Rassuel woke up to see the rays of the two suns in his eyes, almost blinding him with their intensity. He woke up at midday, three hours after Naruto sank into the gunk of slime. Sitting up, he vomited and he found the cause of it: a sting bite, he hadn't even noticed in last night's foray with the bees. The sting bite throbbed purple on the side of his face, no wonder he had slept so long, the bees' poison had done its work and had made it hard for him to save Naruto. The bees were smart, Rassuel had to admit, but he had a few tricks up his sleeve too…

Was Naruto still alive though? That was the important question, he hoped to god the young boy was. If not… well, he would be very angry, enough to make a species go extinct, despite being a closet animal lover. He started walking in the general direction of where the bees had taken Naruto and then stopped as he realized he wouldn't be fast enough. They were FLYING. He was WALKING.

He had to find a way to get to where they were faster, before something terrible happened to Naruto. He had heard stories of the wasps of the desert before, stories so horrible that the teller wouldn't be louder than a whiser. Stories so terrible he had dismissed as rumours, as figments of old soldierly imagination to get away from the war. A bit of escapism from the horrible acts of warfare they had been forced to commit in the name of the King.

He stopped walking all together as desperation and panic overcame him. Focusing on his breath he calmed down enough to think. He needed a way to go faster, so what tools did he have available to him? Casting one dry eye at the sack filled with clothes, and the shrunken ice filled with food that rested in his pocket, he had to admit he did not have much in the way of tools. So what? He still had his techniques and spells right? Only, he was too exhausted to use them. Last night really beat him up good, and he was too tired to do any major spellwork today. He would need at least a week's rest to be in top shape. The best he could do was sand molding and that was just about useless.

Wait, he thought with ingenuity, maybe I can build a structure that will carry me toward the hive of the wasps? A car perhaps? No, that's too complicated. Something simple. A means of transportation… hmm…

He was at a loss of ideas and until something hit him, he could do nothing better except rest. As he sat down on the hot sand, he heard approaching footsteps, and a voice that was familiar. "Amkada Yawin, General." Said the voice. Rassuel opened his eyes and grinned when he saw who it was.

"Amkada Xavin, Soldier." He replied back and grabbed the hand of his second in command. The hand was harshly tight, and very rough to feel. The possessor of the hand was an eight feet tall pure ball of muscle, wearing a white silk robe and a cone shaped hat made of straw. He wore brown boiled leather sandals, and carried a staff by his side, as well as a cloth sack tied behind his back. To Rassuel he was known as Soldier Second Tier Second in Command, nickname was Narr.

"I am in a spot of trouble, old friend," said Rassuel as he lifted himself up. "Will you help me?"

Narr stared at the sky for a few seconds in a dreamy gaze, and then slowly his attention came back to his surroundings and he scrutinized his old commander. "Sure, whatever you say."

"Tell me, how is it you are here?" asked Rassuel as he dusted himself off. "I mean… last I heard, you were in the Navy."

"It is exciting there," said Narr. "War, death, accidents every day. I like peace and quiet so here I am on my vacation."

"Oh," said Rassuel, "Well let me explain my situation. I am supposed to take a very important person – a child really to see the water people in their prisons. Unfortunately for me, he was captured by a band of giant wasps and probably taken to their hive. We need to get there fast."

"When did this happen?" asked Narr, his voice rumbling.

"Last night," Rassuel said, "I couldn't do anything to stop them, though I tried my best."

"I see…" Narr tiredly sat down on the scorching sand, and Rassuel followed him. "Let me think…"

"Why are you helping me?" asked Rassuel.

Narr answered him and then followed up with a plan. "Okay, on my travels, the mud nation had a brilliant new invention that we can use to rescue your little friend. It's called a flying machine. You can mold it out of clay but I suppose sand will work too." Narr stood up to his feet and raised his hands, concentrating on molding the sand. The sand sunk a bit like it was falling into a hole and then suddenly shot up high as a boxcart rose into the air, taking shape, solidifying into a combination of ice and sand. There were two poles stretched from either side of the boxcart. Narr grinned, as he looked at Rassuel and said, "Do you have any clothes?"

Rassuel nodded and gave Narr the entire pack of clothes that Naruto and him had packed for their little trip. Narr stretched the brown robes into a sort of sail, connecting them with needles of ice to the two poles stretching out in tent formation. It became a boat, a sand boat but a boat nonetheless.

"I don't get it, how can this fly?"

"Watch and learn!" Narr said and jumped aboard. Rassuel eagerly followed him into the cart. "I saw you cast that tornado a few miles back. If you can do it again, we will probably have enough wind power to make this sail FLY!"

"I don't think that will work, I mean it sounds awfully hard."

Narr waived Rassuel's concerns away as if they were trivial. "Just observe, my friend," he said and started moving his arms up and down in front of his chest, saying over and over, "hum garda hum garda hum garda" as a manta. The sail picked up nonexistent wind that Rassuel couldn't even feel and began to move, slowly at first but picking up speed steadily.

"H-how is this possible?" asked a shocked Rassuel.

"Spirit magic," Narr said, grinning savagely. "I know you don't approve, but you have to admit, it is effective."

"The price of such magic is a shortened life span," warned Rassuel.

"Bah, I have lived long enough." He said. "UP UP and Away!" The box cart made sail boat started floating in the air, picking up even more speed.

"Amazing," cried out Rassuel. "Just fucking amazing."

----

Narr was about sixty five years old, and his favorite thing in the world was drinking licorice spiced tea. Unfortunately he didn't have any in the desert – though he did back home. He wasn't from the Ice Kingdom originally, but from one of the lesser kingdoms, a little island called Kunatra. In Kunatra, the men grew up in tribes, grew up to be warriors of the highest class and women… they didn't do much of anything. Narr had risen through the ranks as fast as a comet, the son of a railroad worker quickly becoming master of even the king's own sons. He had fought as a mercenary in many tribal battles, and he was the one who led the forces of the Tribe Kunatra to slaughter all the other tribes on the island, steal their women and declare the new island as Kunatra after the sun king and queen they worshipped. Narr ran away at that point, away from his high position as general of the rag tag army on the island and sailed toward the Ice Kingdom, seeking adventure and glory.

He was still young, only twenty four when he set off. The journey lasted eight days, they made a pit stop at another island called Saba. This island was infested with all manner of strange mythical creatures like dragons – smaller versions of the great five that rested at the center of the Earth. In Saba he stayed for three years, fighting off the beasts, living as a hermit warrior. There were no humans on the island save for three monks who stood in a mysteriously deserted abbey from sunrise to sunset. The abbey was on a mountain and the abbey courtyard overlooked the entire island. The three monks – one blind, one deaf, one dumb, laughed the entire day away side by side. All they did was laugh, preaching no message – after all there was nobody left to preach to save for the dangerous animals who mostly left the monks alone – and pick fruits from the trees that grew along the abbey.

Narr went there once, but didn't go again – the entire abbey gave him the creeps, as if there were spirits, cold deathlike things watching over him with their grey lips tightly compressed into thin pencil lines, their noses long and hooked, and their eyebrows tinged red with blood. Narr never saw them but he could feel them watching him and it made him uncomfortable. He guessed the rest of the animals living on the island stayed away from the abbey too.

Narr remembered his first day on the island the most, when his entire crew on the ship was shipwrecked on the island. There had been six of them, all of them his best of friends, strong tough warriors, wise and experienced. They didn't even last an hour. As soon as they got out of the ship seventeen twisted yellow snakes attacked them from all sides, each as big as a full grown oak tree, and just as wide. Their tree-trunk bodies slithered through the beach sands. Narr didn't even bother to fight, he ran, and his friends unwillingly provided him with cover as he slipped past the snakes as fast as he could. The thought still brought guilt to his heart. He felt dirty – betrayed, no not betrayed, a betrayer. A treacherous little worm he had been, but he had done what he had to do.

Beyond the beach there was a grove of trees that reached high into the sky, covering the two suns with leafy red canopy. The leaves, instead of green were red like blood, and that creeped the hell out of Narr at first but he soon learned to camaflouge himself with the crimson blood of his enemies. There were so many villainous creatures to kill too, they jumped at him from all directions. He didn't get hardly any sleep the first few days he was on the island, making a camp, fending off dragons and snakes and scaly gray skinned dogs as big as his hand – they came in packs of hundreds, each of them with their sharp deadly teeth.

He fought on the island harder than he had ever fought in his life, and he survived by only a thread… he realized he couldn't stay in his makeshift shelter for long so he traveled to the abbey where he saw the three monks. He tried to talk to the monks but they did not hear him and would only go on with their insane laughter. As if laughing at the cursed island and at the creatures that dwelled on the hot land. Narr hated the monks at first, but a little while later he got used to it. The abbey provided safety and comfort. He slept the entire night, the next day he ran away because he felt himself slipping into an abyss darker than black. An abyss of crazed lunatic laughter. He sensed that if he had stayed there for longer, there would have been four monks instead of three.

But he did notice he had gotten slightly stronger, completely healed from his mortal wounds, and was a part of the island now. He felt a sense of belonging with these crazy creatures that seemed to sprout up from nowhere at all – though in the darkest of the night, he _thought_it came from the Abbey, but he could never be sure. Or rather, he was too scared to make sure. Since he was part of the island he was also part of the food chain but he dealt with that by making himself out to be the number one. Of course there was a lot of competition, but all in all he dealt with it pretty fine.

Three years in isolation spent warring and fighting beasts deadened his heart and his emotions, made him either sub human or super human, which was debatable. Still, when Rassuel found him on a ship raid to the island, a man who didn't speak a word yet nonetheless agreed to join the navy as a mercenary, he became slightly more… _sociable._The scars remained from the island however, long deep gouges across his chest, arms, legs, neck, and face. Gouges that would remain with him forever, reminding him of the mysterious island of death as he termed it in his mind. All that was there in the island was death and destruction after all.

He sensed that Rassuel had saved his life; certainly he couldn't have lasted there for long. Because he was deathly afraid of the Abbey and it's seductive womanly voice whispering to him from his darkest dreams and nightmares, telling him to come closer. He would have stayed on the beach save for the pack of yellow snakes that were quite possibly the queens of the food chain. He could never fight one of them. On the other side of the island there was a cliff, and that was where the ships had come. Twenty steamers in all, each of them billowing smoke rising from their chimney shutes as coal thundered the ships on. Flags of Ice raised high and proud and when Narr joined as an Honorary Guest Warrior, a fancy name for a mercenary, he became part of the Ice Empire. Rassuel had found him a new home by saving his life, and for that Narr was eternally grateful. The idea of helping him with his problem didn't seem strange to the ruthless and selfish Narr, because he _owed _Rassuel something big for his life and he saw this as a chance to repay his debts. The debt of life hanged heavily on his mind, giving him no peace or rest. He didn't come to the desert to find peace – he came to the desert to find Rassuel, and earn his peace. Here he finally had a chance to do so and he had to admit, his luck was pretty good… so far.

----

Rassuel laughed as he felt the wind sail through his gray beard and he heard – no, he felt – the strange stilted form of happiness Narr felt right now. Looking sideways at the grizzled warrior beside him on the flying contraption they were riding on, he said, "So do you know what we should do when we get there?"

Narr turned to look at him carefully, "Should I?"

"You were always the best at making plans so I naturally assumed…"

"Well, all I know is the general direction we're going," said Narr. "Never faced these flying bees shit before. My usual strategy is to just blast the opposition away, but with only two of us its going to be difficult."

"Yes, that's why we need a plan," said Rassuel. "I suggest we scout the place first before heading right into it, perhaps we can make some dynamite and explode them out."

"If your friend is alive that is, right?"

Rassuel nodded.

"I doubt he is," Narr said with a flat stare at the sand below. "But I'll come along on this crazy thing for you."

"Thank you, old friend."

Narr nodded.

----

The Kyuubi panicked as she watched through Naruto's eyes a sleek snake attack her body (Naruto's body, host body, what confusion…) her mind, her very being. She felt the hold over the boy slipping slowly, the hold which had taken so long to work through.

Then as Naruto sunk, life force slipping away, she knew she had to pump bucket loads of chakra into his system to keep him alive. She didn't want to die! But if Naruto died she was dead too, and she wasn't quite ready to go to the other side.

"Dammit! This just isn't… fair…" Her life force was slipping away just as steadily as Naruto's. The cold reality of death confronted her like ice, and she knew suddenly her life purpose: not die.

But how?

How?

Pump more chakra, she told herself, just concentrate on doing that.

The red smoke like aura rose around Naruto, floating him back to the surface and keeping him alive, slow dangerous form of living, but life nonetheless. The snake's slitted eyes narrowed as it weaved through the green gob and stuck its two glistening white fangs into Naruto's thigh.

----

The Queen looked down at her Princess with disdain, "So this is what you've been doing in your spare time, huh?"

The Princess looked up from the book she was reading, "So what?"

"Books? You want to turn out like your uncle?"

She shrugged, "Its interesting, something about seals." The cover read: By: Uzumaki Naruto." The name intrigued her for some reason that seemed strangely familiar.

"Put that away, it's a waste of time," the Queen snapped. "We have work to do, the Name Assassins will be coming any moment now so I want you to be ready."

"Where from?"

The Queen scowled, "Fire nation," she said, "Bloody bastards."

Princess Nomi grinned as she threw the book on the carpet rug and followed her mother out of her private house into the meeting room.

"Hello there," said the Queen, eyes shining with cunning, bright smile on her face. "I am so glad you arrived on time."

In the chamber, the room was dark and seemed stilted as if reality was bending itself to accommodate the two figures in the room: two figures with black cloaks, and red clouds on them. They both had sharingans for eyes, whirling in their eye sockets. That was all one could see from the descendants of the Uchiha Clan, founder being the great Uchiha Itachi.

"You called." Their voices were hoarse, as if they were unused to speech. Covered in shadows, one couldn't see their faces or their expressions, but Princess Nomi could almost imagine the scowls on their faces.

"Why yes we did," the Queen said, smooth smile sickening to the Princess. The Name Assassins were something to be wary of to be sure, all of them were Uchiha descendants. Only those with the dreaded sharingan could perform the Name Assassination Technique, a master technique Itachi had developed by himself, the very same he had used to destroy his brother before he himself died of the injuries Sasuke had dealt him in their last battle.

"We want you to kill this person, Rassuel of the Royal Ice Clan." She handed them a picture of her younger brother. They took it by stretching their hands from across the room in a slingshot style, grabbing the picture, shooting back, examining it and then watching it burn in their fingers. "Is that all?" said the speaker of the pair, the one on the left. They both looked so alike.

"There is one more, his name's Uzumaki Naruto."

Princess Nomi's heart froze, that was the name on the book! Also it was the boy's name apparently… "W-wait," she said but not loud enough even for her to hear. It went unheard though the Name Assassin on the right looked sharply at her.

"Picture?" asked the speaker on the left.

The Queen pulled one out, and the speaker stretched out his (or was it a her? Wondered Nomi strangely) arm and grabbed the picture.

"No," he said, "We can't do this one."

"Why not?" demanded the Queen.

The Name Assassin gazed at her with deadness in those whirling red eyes. The Queen froze in fear, and then anger overtook her. "Why the hell not?" she shouted.

"Because… Itachi, Master of the Sharingan, came from Konoha."

"K-konoha," whispered the Queen, white faced.

"This boy is from Konoha as well. I have heard tales about him in legends…" said the one on the right, speaking for the first time. "I have heard he single handedly defeated an entire army of the Ancient Iwa ninjas, how he single handedly blinded Itachi's left eye."

"Then why don't you kill him?" asked the Queen.

"Mother! Didn't you hear him? He must be a billion years old if what they are saying is true!" said Princess Nomi.

"That's foolish," snapped the Queen, "You can't be serious."

"We must investigate this at once, as well as inform the Uchiha Council about this one."

"I want him dead!"

"As do I, woman," said the right one. "But he might be too strong for just us alone. You know as well as we do that a Name Assassin can only kill those weaker than him."

"B-but-" The Queen was shocked, she did not know that actually.

"No, the council must hear about this at once," said the Uchiha, "We also will not be able to kill this Rassuel person. Not right now anyways."

"No, I hired you! You must-"

"We will… repay Uzumaki for his crimes against Itachi, Master of the Dragons, be assured, Queen," said the right one. "But it will take time."

There was a bang and a flash of bright light and they were gone.

The Queen smiled, "Something's going on," she said, her smile obviously strained and false.

"So what should we do?" asked Princess Nomi.

"You, my dear, will chase Naruto and bring him back, dead or alive."

"But you can't possibly expect _me _to do this, I mean-"

"You will, or you will not be able to take the throne. Your choice," offered the Queen coldly.

Nomi sagged, "I see," she said. "I will do what I must then." Inside though, she seethed with anger.

----

Trailer for the Next Chapter

Can Narr and Rassuel mount a rescue for Naruto before its too late and he dies? Will Naruto survive the snake's venom? What are the Uchihas going to do to Naruto? While Nomi inwardly battles her loyalty to her mother and her hate for her mother, can she survive the desert journey? Find out on the next chapter:

Chapter Four: The Rescue Plan 

Coming out in a week by your favorite author, Tridentwatch.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: The Plan

They neared the pit slowly, and at first Rassuel didn't even see it because he wasn't looking for a pit. He was looking for something that brought attention to itself like a mountain or a hive above the sand. It was Narr who pointed out the existence of the pit and when Rassuel realized what it was he grew frightened. "It's an entrance to their nest," said Rassuel. "We can't go in there yet though, we should scout first."

"How do you plan to do that?" asked Narr.

"I confess I don't know, but we need to figure out a way. Rushing headlong into a situation such as this only results in destruction. You know that as well as I do. Remember the seige of Klum no Ba?"

"Yes, we learnt our lesson well on that day," said Narr, "But these are just a bunch of giant bees, they surely won't harm us. Filthy creatures, they are no match for our skills and abilities."

"Don't underestimate them," said Rassuel, "They have animal cunning that makes them dangerous to deal with. Now, lets think of a plan to get Naruto out."

"First we need to find a way to see where this tunnel leads," Narr said, "One of us has to go down it."

"Hmm, perhaps," said Rassuel, "Or we could just blow the pit to smitherins. We'll see everything in the crater we will make."

Narr grinned, "Now you're talking. But they'll know we're here, so we won't have the advantage of a surprise attack."

"This pit could be a trap," said Rassuel, "If we do go in, we should know what we'll be facing first."

"I agree, I agree," said Narr, "But..."

"What's the problem?"

"I don't know. Something about this place gives me a bad feeling..."

"Same here." Rassuel sighed, "Let's get to work thinking of a plan then, right?"

"Right." Narr then proceed to form a bright red prism of energy between his two palms.

"Hey what are you doing?" asked a frantic Rassuel.

"You still haven't learnt my friend, if you want to face a problem you have to do it head to head. Or something…" Narr's eyes darted left and right and then he shouted, "Nama Hieson!" and unleashed the prism at the pit.

"No, you don't know what you're doing!" shouted Rassuel as he watched horrified as the red prism grew in size until it made contact with the pit. There was a great big explosion that sounded like a billion thunderstorms put together and a flash of red, and the dust… and a gigantic crater revealing an army of bees heading straight for them!

"Run!" shouted Narr as he leapt off the flying contraption and proceeded to fight off the bees. "Get your little friend and run! I'll hold them off."

"Okay," said Rassuel, face white with fear as he too leapt off the flying contraption and made his way for the mound filled with holes. That was the main nest no doubt, and Rassuel could almost feel Naruto's breath in there. He sprinted as fast he could, jumped into a hole and met head on with a gigantic bee with a grudge at him. The bee tried to pierce Rassuel with its stinger but Rassuel dodged and with a hand filled with a sword of blue chakra and cut the bee's head off with a clean swipe. Then he raced through the tunnel until he entered a chamber intermixed with red and silver light. The red light came from Naruto's still form, floating above a gunk of green goo. There was a snake restlessly moving around Naruto, as if on the verge of deciding something big, deciding to strike perhaps.

Rassuel acted fast, on instinct, he rushed over into the pile of goo, hands loaded with chakra, and the snake sprang on him, trying to whind around him, and kill him like a python. Rassuel slashed the snake to bits, but not before it got a little revenge strike at his lower back. Then it was gone into the depths of the green pool. Rassuel went over to Naruto, wading waist deep in the goo, held aloft only by concentrating his power on water walking. He dragged Naruto out of the pool, out of the mound of tunnels, and out into the crater where Narr still fought the bees one at a time.

"Come on, we must go!" shouted Rassuel as he carried Naruto over his right shoulder. Narr nodded at him, and let of quick blasts of energy at the bees left and right. Some scattered, the rest charged.

Then Naruto woke up, his eyes glowing red with hate and malice. He started speaking, voice feminine like a cat's purr, "You vile creatures did this to me. You will pay!" Naruto leapt off Rassuel's back and moved as fast as a whirlwind, he destroyed the bees left and right.

It was a massacre.

Narr and Rassuel watched with horror and awe as Naruto ripped through the ranks of the bees – it was not the same Naruto, Rassuel saw, it was the Kyuubi who was _controlling_Naruto but how he couldn't say. He recalled he left the book of seals back at his house, but now it was too late to get it.

In less than a minute the bees had either fled or lay on the glistening orange sand, dead to the world. Naruto started laughing…

----

The kyuubi felt very gleeful. She was finally in control, after what seemed like a billion years she finally had her body back – or at least, a body, which was just as good. She looked through Naruto's eyes, controlling the boy like a puppet master. The boy tried to fight for control, but it was a pathetic and weak fight. When she finished disposing of the bees – killing them as brutally as possible, for what? She didn't know, because in a way they had helped her, but she wanted to feed her bloodlust first, and she also wanted to save her _rescuers_ for later, a more slower kind of torture than mere death. It would be fun to torture the boy's friends for what he was to her: a cage.

Of course a part of her knew it couldn't last, but she was surprised how quickly the boy regained control from her. As soon as she started charging at the old man (Rassuel) the boy snapped and took control. But still she was elated, because she knew that if it happened once, it could happen again. In her constant battle with the Yondaime's seals, she just gained a point in her mental scoreboard. And she would gain another and another until finally one day she could get out of this body and wreak havoc on the world… whatever world it was, she didn't care.

---

"N-naruto," Rassuel whispered as the boy collapsed to the sand. He caught the boy just in time, and looked at the fading whisker marks, as well as the fading color on the boy's face with alarm. Then Naruto opened his sapphire blue eyes and Rassuel felt all was right with the world once again. Naruto was alive… Naruto was safe…

"What happened?" Naruto asked weakly. "I don't remember… thirsty… water..?"

"Here," Narr said, coming behind Rassuel and handing the old man a water bag. Rassuel took it and put the opening between Naruto's lips, raising the boy up so he could drink properly. Naruto gulped cool soothing water greedily.

"I need to go," Narr said, "What were you doing here anyways? Will you tell me?"

Rassuel slowly nodded, "We were going to the prisons to rescue the water people."

Narr raised an eyebrow, "It will be tough. The guards there are vicious and brutal, not to mention the beasts guarding the fortress."

"Aye, Kahn Gen Yu is well nigh inmpenetrable but we have to try. I still haven't told the boy of this yet, but when I do…"

Narr said nothing. "Good bye, I hope we can meet again in happier times."

Rassuel smiled softly, "Take care," he said.

Narr turned and started walking away.

---

The Princess packed her essentials, whatever she would need for her trip. Her mother had left and right now she hated her as her condescending voice passed through the top of her mind, eagerly provoking her like a vicious viper. She hated her because of what she made her, a princess, she hated the rank and the constraints that came with it, they far outweighed any benefits. Luxury was good. Freedom was better. Now though the Queen had given her the dullest job in the world – Capture Naruto. Sure not too dull, at least when she finally caught up with the boy, but the trip through the desert… she winced. She did not fancy imagining her soft skin under the hot hot suns. It was not a pretty sight. A succubus had to keep up appearances and the Queen had sent her on a mission akin to torture.

Yes that's right, she thought to herself. Mother's torturing me. She's punishing me for something but two can play at that game.

She knew the rumours of course of how the Queen had killed her father, who was the ruler of Ice Kingdom before her. That was how she gained power. Now, to Princess Nomi, it seemed to be a family tradition as she came to a freezing conclusion in her mind: she would kill mother, she would take control of the throne, and she would become the new Queen. Her ambitions burned inside her heart, made her arteries race and her pulse rise with sheer pleasure as she thought about the upcoming assassination. It would require a lot of planning, a lot of hardwork, but then the freedom from the oppressing Queen would be worth it. Have no suitors? Who was the Queen kidding. It was a succubus's nature to play around with boys and make them do what she wanted. If Naruto was older, she would have gotten him in her clutches for sure…

But life doesn't work that way. Life is hardly ever fair, as proven by the fact she was packing her things, her most valuable possessions: gowns, a few books here and there dealing with succubuses, jewlerry, and an assortment of other items including ointment for burns, ointment for scars and scabs and wounds, make up, etc.

She sighed as she stopped packing her brown suitcase, looking around the pale chambers she was stuck in: two beds, side to side, a dome shaped roof, red carpets, lots and lots of shelves filled with scientific objects. This used to be the King's bedroom. Now it was her's. She had explored it as best as she could but suddenly something caught her eye, a globe of the world: green, blue, white, sitting in a corner shelf. What most caught her eye was a crack through the globe, very small, she hardly even noticed it but when she did she frowned: she remembered handling all the objects here and had never noticed a crack in the globe before. Then before her startled eyes the crack started to widen until the globe spun apart, revealing a pink egg that beat like a heart, emitting heat. Veins of blue and red swirled around the egg, the shape of the globe, growing bigger.

She gulped, she had seen this kind of an egg before. It was a dragon egg, but not just any dragon, a _major_dragon. Not one of those pesky beasts that reach only to your waist, but a huge ginormous dragon that would touch the sky. This… was a dragon egg. She knew the egg would hatch, and her quick mind easily put the facts together: the old king must have hidden the egg away before he was killed and now that the egg had grown to enormous proportions it split apart the globe. Soon the egg would hatch… and the first person it saw it would consider the mother. She had read somewhere of people owning dragons as pets, like Uchiha Itachi for example, he created the dragons with his mangekyou sharingaan…

Heart hammering in her chest, breath caught in the back of her throat, she floated toward the egg and hid it underneath the pocket of her brown robes. It sat there, resting uncomfortably like a heavy weight and even more than that: it stuck out, it was noticeable. Princess Nomi couldn't have that, if mother caught sight of the egg she would get her grubby claws on it so fast…

No, she would have to hide it, but where? Easy, that was. Among her things of course. In that suitcase of hers, surrounded by clothes so it would be well protected. She did as her thoughts suggested and sweeped the globe shards underneath the bed. Then she finished packing and headed out into the desert without even saying goodbye to the Queen.

----

Uchiha Wenton and Uchiha Tyron were the two who had met with the Queen. As they traveled back to the heart of Uchiha Kingdom as the part of fire nation where the Uchiha clan lived in luxury was known, they discussed among them what to do:

"We must tell the Council everything, they'll figure it out, they'll handle this. Don't you understand, Tyron, we are not strong enough to handle this alone." Said Wenton.

"Yes we are!" urged Tyron. "We can do this together. Think of the fame we shall have after we bring Uzumaki, captured, to the council? Think of the power! We might even get a seat on-"

"No we won't, you know why? Because we won't be able to capture Uzumaki, he will be a formidable opponent and when we lose we'll have to go back with our tails between our legs and report to the Council of our failure. Then we might just get a death sentence. Do you want that?"

"You don't understand Wenton, we ARE strong enough. You just need to believe in yourself more. Just think… we'll be the most famous Uchihas among the entire clan to bring back such a thing as this."

Wenton scowled. "All you think about is power and how to get a seat on the council. If you just thought logically for a moment you would realize it will be impossible for your plan to work without a hitch. There are too many unanswered questions."

"Be practical, man, power must be sought at all costs!" Tyron exclaimed, "Will you be stuck as an Uchiha grunt forever?" He stopped mid-walk. "I'm going back, will you come with me?"

Wenton turned, "What are you planning to do?"

"I'll capture Naruto Uzumaki, and I'll bring him to the council."

"You'll get killed."

"And whose fault will that be?"

"Yours!" retorted Wenton angrily. "You aren't my responsibility."

"Is that so, older brother?"

Wenton scowled. "Are you sure you want to do this? To continue with your blockheaded idea?"

Tyron grinned, "It will work."

"You better be right," said Wenton. "Come on then."

Tyron looked at Wenton's back slack jawed as his brother went after Naruto. "Hey wait up!" He said, hurrying after him.

----

"Wake up Naruto," said Rassuel, shaking the boy awake. "We need to hurry. I have a bad feeling… as if somebody's coming after us and I've long since learned to trust my feelings." Naruto laid stock-still, snores could be heard for miles, as the two suns rose, greeting Rassuel in morning light. "Wake up for godsakes!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" yelled Naruto, shaking a fist at Rassuel. "Don't bully me like this or I'll really let you have one."

"Just start walking, Naruto," said Rassuel wearily.

"Yeah yeah, what about breakfast?"

"All our food's gone, I told you that last night didn't I?"

"You mean all of it? What are we going to do?"

Rassuel looked to the horizon, "We walk."

After that he would talk no further. At the end of the day, they slept hungry. The next day, when Naruto woke up, he saw two bulbous eyes looking down at him. They were yellow and belonged to a huge T-rex dinosaur. Naruto screamed, waking Rassuel up beside him. When Rassuel took note of the dinosaur he grinned to himself, "Dinner time!" Then he stood up and looked the dinosaur up and down. It was green, had four legs, clawed, and an enormous trunk of a nose that looked kind of like an elephant. It was an evolutionary mutation of the elephantosaurus, the ancient dinosaur that roamed Earth before the war.

Rassuel gathered chi in his palms and made a ball of explosive chakra, that once unleashed would cause a massive bang. Perfect, instant roasted dinner. Or in this case, breakfast.

The dinosaur simply looked curiously at them, before raising its jaws wide revealing sharp monstrous teeth. Then it charged at Rassaul, who stuck his hand inside the dinosaur's mouth and let the explosion loose. The dinosaur was flung back a few hundred feet, roasted from inside out. Rassuel had held back at the last moment.

"Wow that was so cool!" exclaimed Naruto, hungry. "Can we do it again?"

Rassuel chuckled as Naruto ran to the dead dino. But his eyes saddened when he saw Naruto's left hand where there was only a stump. Since that injury, since waking up, Naruto had been cross and easily annoyed and very easily angered. He felt useless, thought Rassuel. Naruto feels scared as well… he won't try any techniques anymore. Beside the physical damage, his mistake made psychological problems for him too. How troublesome.

Naruto was bothered by his injury. He would never have his left hand again, but even more than that, he would be useless as a ninja of Konoha. In the Academy, it was taught that most jutsus required two hands. If he couldn't do jutsus how could he become a Hokage? He had thought about this long and hard, and it was only as he saw with awe the roasted dinosaur, he came to realize that Rassuel didn't use any jutsus. Not like Konoha ninjas anyway. He simply molded energy and let loose, and that could be done with one hand as well. Naruto smiled a real smile for the first time in days as two trails of pearly white tears ran down his face. It was tears of happiness as he realized that he could become a hokage again. He could be a good Konoha ninja.

I don't know how I got this way but I know its not alright, said Naruto as he thought of his recent behaviour. Rassuel's my friend, I need to treat him better. I also need to train harder so I can be Hokage!

"Hey Rassuel, how are we going to eat this? You want the top or the bottom?"

Rassuel jogged over to the boy and suggested, "How about we cut it in the middle, huh?"

Naruto grinned, smile lighting up innocent eyes. "Yes!"

They ate a feast that morning.

---

They went fast. Rassuel showed Naruto how to channel chakra to his feet and run at an awesomely fast pace. Naruto picked up the concept surprisingly fast, soon they were going through the sand like a car driving through a puddle, kicking up sand and dust as they made a trail of fire through the seemingly endless desert. "This is tiring," said Naruto, "I'm bored too."

"You wanted to come here, not me," said Rassuel, getting a bit annoyed at Naruto, "Besides, our destination is not far off now."

"How far?" growled out the demon container.

"Not far…" Rassuel said vaguely, having no idea where it was exactly. It had been decades since he had visited the water prisons. How was he to know where it was just by memory alone. But he figured he would find it eventually. Then they noticed a shiny object glinting in the sunlight far away. Rassuel held out a hand, "Naruto stop for a sec."

Naruto came to an abrubt screeching stop, "What's going on?"

"Look," said Rassuel pointing at the object in the distance. "What is that?"

Naruto held a hand covering his narrowed eyes as he scrutinized the distance.

"My eyesight isn't what it used to be," lamented Rassuel, "Do you know…?"

"Its metal," Naruto said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, its metal alright, like one of those round house thingies back at where you live."

"I see… ah…" Rassuel muttered to himself, "This isn't going to be easy."

"What's not going to be easy?" asked Naruto. "I mean, how hard can breaking the water people out of prison be? Huh?"

Rassuel laughed, "Naruto… so naïve," he said, "You do understand that there are over five hundred soldiers guarding the place right? As well as maybe a hundred beasts guarding the outskirts…?"

Naruto gulped, "S-so much?" His breath caught in his throat as he realized what sort of situation they were in now.

"Yes," Rassuel said grimly. "We have no food, no supplies, no allies, we have nothing Naruto and we need to take on the most fearsome fortress in the Ice Kingdom."

"So what are we going to do?"

"I don't know, I suggest we head back into the desert to look for another meal, and perhaps make a plan."

Naruto nodded, looking serious. Rassuel surveyed the young boy and marveled at the change he had gone through. The innocent boy from Konoha had disappeared, replaced with one that wasn't so outspoken and loud, one that was tainted by his first battle. Even though it was with the bees, it had still been life opening for Naruto. Now the young demon container had changed, had matured slightly, had reached a different stage in the cycle of life.

Naruto was more of a warrior than ever before, and it filled Rassuel with pride, knowing it was he who had caused this. It was most likely his greatest achievement to stand by Naruto Uzumaki on his journey to warriorhood, and to witness the great achievements that would surely come from this amazing little boy.

But for now they had a fortress to break into and a way to transcend the outer fringe of the fortress filled with hidden beasts, as well as a way to incapitate over five hundred guards.

It would be a long haul for sure, but Rassuel was ready for it. He smirked his old general smirk, the one that said, I'm the boss, I know everything. Because in a way he did know everything. Once a long time ago he had put to siege on a similar fortress as this one and he had failed. That sting of his failure had been with him all his life and here he saw a chance to redeem himself and his reputation as a general. Think of it, he told himself, the old war general and a little boy conquer the most guarded fortress in Ice Kingdom. This would be a tale to tell the young 'uns for sure.

----

"I have a plan," said Rassuel as they walked along the sand dunes looking for wild beasts to hunt. Naruto's stomach growled at regular intervals, howling for food.

"Tell me," commanded Naruto, frustrated at their lack of success at getting food. They hadn't eaten for the past day.

"We use dynamite to draw the gaurds here and ambush them," said Rassuel. "But the only problem is we don't have any dynamite."

Naruto sweat dropped. "That's the worst idea I've ever heard!"

"Hey, don't question me, I used to be a general."

"A really crappy one no doubt," muttered Naruto, "Look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way."

"What's the easy way?"

"We charge right in, destroy them, and rescue the water people. Easy."

Rassuel growned, "Only you would think that would be easy. What's the hard way then?"

"We make some complicated plan that won't even work."

"It might work " growled Rassuel. "You can't say for sure."

"Yes I can, your plans suck, you've been telling me hundreds by the minute and all of them have one major flaw."

"Oh, what's that?" snapped Rassuel.

"It sucks."

Rassuel growled. "You come up with a better plan then."

"I already did, we just march right in!"

"That's a bad plan. We'll just get killed, idiot."

"No we won't," said Naruto quietly. "I'll just use the Kyuubi's power."

"Naruto…" Rassuel's throat felt dry. "Don't use that, you don't know how dangerous it might be for you."

"We can't do much else, we came all this way so-"

"No, I forbid it!" exclaimed Rassuel. "If you use the Kyuubi's power on purpose you and me are done for."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll leave Naruto, you don't realize the effect of the power, what it causes other people to feel." Rassuel shuddered. "I mean it, don't use that."

"Okay," said Naruto, "I promise I won't."

"Good."

"We still need a plan though."

"How about we mold sand and make our own tower, and they'll come to investigate and we ambush them…?"

Naruto groaned. "Why did I ever promise such a stupid thing…"

Rassuel chuckled, "Don't worry Naruto, we'll think of something."

"If you say so."

---

Princess Nomi marched through the desert, an expression of fury clearly etched on her face. She held a bag of clothes, where she felt the egg pulsating up and down inside it. She had developed a mental connection with the egg, similar to when she tried to seduce men, she developed a connection with them and used the connection to her advantage except in this case it seemed the egg was using her to its advantage, as if it had a cunning and intellect far greater than her own. She felt scared and afraid of the egg, yet at the same time, she felt a deep ocean of peace and calm and love radiating from the egg, not to some weird bizarre location, but directly to her, as if the egg was saying, "Its okay mother. I'll take care of you mother." And she realized that was what she had become – or would become if she let this lunacy go on, a mother to a dragon. She shuddered, was this a horrible fate? A terrible one or a great glorious one? She didn't know. What she did know however was the heat and she knew that intimately. She felt the sweat, sticky and warm, run down her legs, down her face, from her armpits to the tips of her fingers and she hated this environment, hated her mother the Queen for putting her through this.

"When I become Queen… oh, we are going to see some changes alright," she told herself, imagining a life of endless luxury, and most of all: coolness. Goddamit, she was a royal princess, and not only that, but of the Ice Kingdom, yet she didn't know any of her traditional spells, having been trained in the arts of the succubuss by a traveling mistress as a child. And she hadn't bothered to learn what she had termed a useless and dead art, yet now she wished she hadn't been so stupid.

"Honestly, I'm a princess," she told herself, "I can't survive like this, I need servents, I need fresh fruit and men."

But she had to survive because she saw no other option. The Queen had exiled her, nothing more nothing less, and on a fool's mission. Find the ambassador; bring him back. Yeah, that would be real easy. Not.

She had been traveling for hours it seemed across the endless desert when suddenly she collapsed from a heat stroke, fell face first into the burning golden sand as the last rays of the dual suns fell upon her body. And something happened that had she been awake would have frightened her terribly.

Men arose from the sand like gophers in one of those circus games where you try to hit the gopher. They moved quickly toward her, dressed completely in white, including a white bandana that covered everything on their faces except for their eyes. There were at least a dozen of these nomads – sand men who traveled across the desert – and they came at her from every direction, having long sice surrounded her. They had been traveling with her – unknowingly to the Princess of course – for the last few hours waiting for an opportunity to ambush her. She would fetch a high ransom indeed from the much hated Ice Kingdom who regularly sent warriors to kill their tribes.

A boy named Alex Wong looked through the Princess's bags as the other sand men tied her up, using it as an excuse to grope her and take a feel of her soft womanly flesh. The boy held up the egg with wide eyes, and the egg transferred its ownership over to the boy as if sensing the situation it was in. Hurrying, the boy transferred the egg into the wrinkles of his white robes and dumped the bag next to the woman.

The egg he could feel inside his clothes like a second heart, a second body. Father, the egg said, or at least the boy imagined it saying. Take care of me father, please, father, please.

And the boy couldn't help but be seduced by this great dragon egg's charm, the charm that had seduced the seducer of men – the succubus princess Nomi. Now it seduced Alex Wong to take over in the place of the Princess, to protect the egg, and to care for it until it hatched.

----

That night Naruto and Rassuel discussed the perfect plan to break into the fortress that guarded the water people. They came up with a simple yet effective plan: charge right in. After much arguing Rassuel had agreed only because he realized that his own plans sucked. His skills as a general had rusted terribly from disuse but he was itching to put them back to work again. "Okay here's how it will go," he said to Naruto, "I'll distract them with blasts and smokescreens and you will go and get the water people – break them out somehow and get them across the desert as fast as possible. I'll hold them off and then catch up to you."

"Sounds good but what are we going to do after we rescue the water people? I mean… where will we go?"

Rassuel grimaced. "I don't know. I was thinking we could hire a ship and travel the world, I would like to see a few islands here and there…"

Naruto grinned. "I want to see the future Earth, it will be fun old man. I'm looking forward to it so don't screw up."

"I gotcha Naruto. So how are we going to do this? Just charge?"

"Chaaaaarge!" Naruto screamed and ran across the sand dunes with frightening speed. Rassuel sighed and said, "I thought so," but it went unheard amidst Naruto's warcry. Almost reluctantly Rassuel followed, jogging up to him with only slight difficulty.

"No danger yet," Naruto said while panting hard from running.

"Don't stop, keep going," said Rassuel and then screamed as a horrible snake like creature with wings descended from the starry sky, its sharp silvery claws glinting in the light from the stars, ready to snap itself into soft flesh.

Naruto saved Rassuel's life in an instant, not even thinking of what he was doing as he instantly formed a ball of compact energy and threw it at the descending beast. The beast flung back, injured but not dead and growled, readying itself for a second strike. It's leathery wings beat down on the hot air surrounding it – coming unconsciously from Naruto, a tinge of red that surrounded the boy like smoke.

The dragon reared up but this time Rassuel was ready with a sharp chakra filled kick to the dragon's jaw, taking it out with one quick blow. A snap echoed across the desert that they felt were sure to be heard from miles but thankfully the dragon was as dead as can be.

"What is this thing?" Naruto asked as he approached the beast cautiously.

"A minature dragon," Rassuel grimly replied.

"Minature? It's as big as a building!"

"Yup, minature." Rassuel sighed. "This one was half starved, and not only that but a baby one too. The challenges facing us ahead are not going to be easy."

"Don't worry, I'm ready," Naruto said and started walking into enemy territory. Rassuel followed.

---

Back at his camp Alex Wong masticated an apple with pleasure as he watched across the blue orange fire toward the dancing old shaman with the skull bones adorned on his staff jingling like death bells in the wind. He wore fur skin, a lot of it, and make up across his face. Underneath his numerous clothing there lied a frail frame and a skinny wrinkled body half destroyed by disease and the desert. His toes were black, fingers black, not because of make up but because of disease. Yet he was paradoxically the oldest one in the camp, and a wise shaman as well. He sang old traditional songs that howled across the sky, filling Alex Wong with tingles along his spinal cord and a cold emptiness in his heart and belly where the dragon egg resided in his inner pocket. Beside him were the dozen or so men and beside them were their women. Alex was one of three young children in the nomadic camp, the other two still out with their hunting parties so he had nobody to share the good news of the dragon egg with.

Nor did he want to. The dragon egg told him not to, it sounded like lunacy when he thought about it but in some ways, the telling felt right. The relationship between the egg and him felt _right,_and he felt complete. But he also felt empty somewhere, a part of him he could not describe recoiled at the evil it felt in the presence of the dragon egg, and a part of him at the same time was drawn to it, a fly to a fire. But the question was, would he get burnt?

The woman they had captured lay at the shaman's feet, half sobbing, half laughing in craziness as she was stripped of all her clothing and lay there, naked and tied in bondage, looking not like a princess anymore but like a regular slut in a brothel. Still her soft milky skin and her smooth black hair filled Alex with a burning desire deep within his bossom. He longed to have her, to become a man for the first time and he was sure the men around him were only stopped by the presence of their stern and tough wives. But they cast their eyes across the woman's naked body whenever they could.

The shaman for his part was too old for such feelings, he danced and did the sacred nightly rituals and then they all went back to the tents. But Alex stayed for a moment looking across the fire in the middle of the circular camp at the naked woman and he knew with a certainty that some of the men – maybe even his own father – would be back for her, to do things to her and something within him told him he had to save her. Perhaps it was the dragon egg whispering its will to him and transforming him into a slave, perhaps it was his innate conscience and compassion or perhaps it was just plain lust but he decided in the span of a single second staring at the fire and at the woman behind the fire that he had to save her using any means necessary.

He went back to his tent but he couldn't sleep amid the animal skins that made up his bed, so a few minutes later he went back outside. Nobody was there, he was all alone and the woman looked at him with pleading eyes. The dragon egg still pulsated within the folds of his robe.

He acted fast, amazed that nobody had come for the woman yet but they would soon when they were sure their wives were asleep. That would take a while, for nomad wives were known to get jealous. Alex pulled out a dark blade and untied the woman up. She said nothing, as if knowing what Alex would do, what he was trying to do. She nodded her thanks, grabbed the pile of clothes beside her and quickly dressed herself.

"You need to go," Alex said.

"Where's the egg?" She hissed.

Alex shook his head, about to say he couldn't give it to her when suddenly he halted in his mental tracks. "I'm coming with you, the egg's safe with me." He didn't know why he said it but if he were a warlock of the Wind he would have realized the egg slowly possessed him, bending his will to suit its own purposes.

"Come on then," she said and they hurried out of camp, too much in a hurry to bother to pack anything. They left the camp and the dying embers of the fire and started a new future, a new path paved by the egg of a real dragon created by the Mengekyo sharingan.

"Aha," a voice whispered behind them as the shaman strode forward from the shadows. "I sensed it, I knew it!" He whispered, his eyes looking insane in the red glow of the dying fire.

"Shaman-master, you don't understand-" Alex began.

"I understand very well. Young sand warrior. It's the love in the air isn't it?" the shaman said this with a leering grin that revealed black decaying teeth and then winked, a sight that sent shivers of grotesque terror up Alex's spine.

"I'll be back," Alex said awkwardly but it was as if some other being was channeling this through him. As if his body was merely a puppet, a medium for this vast force of nature.

The shaman nodded, grinning like a fool. "Take your time," he called out as the pair ran off into the night.

As they jogged on the tough sand dunes underneath them, Alex turned to the woman and asked, "What's your name?"

"I'm Princess Nomi," she said, gasping for air. "You?"

"Alex Wong," he said, "Son of Chieftain Wong."

"So in a way you're a prince?" Nomi asked, curious despite her sneering nature.

"Yeah, I guess so." Alex looked at his feet and then looked at her face and looked back at his feet again, feeling heat rise up in his cheeks. "Erm… let's walk, we have time."

"Are you rescuing me or doing something worse?"

"I don't know," Alex said, shrugging, and then he pulled out the dragon egg, pinkish and throbbing with hidden energy. "Here, its yours isn't it?"

Princess Nomi put her finger tips on it and then quickly pulled away as if she were shocked with an electric current. She shook her head, "You can have it. Consider it my gift for rescuing me."

"Thanks," Alex said, "What is it?"

"I don't know exactly but I found it in my dad's room."

"Is he the King of the Ice Kingdom?"

"Yeah but he died three years ago."

"Oh," Alex didn't know what to say but she said it for him.

"I don't know what to do right now."

"I don't either," Alex admitted, "I guess I could probably live in the desert. My father won't be pleased I can tell you, he'll blow a fuse and probably exile me or something."

"You don't sound concerned," she said, thinking this strange.

"Well… I never really wanted to become chieftain of the White Sand, what I really want to do is become a music specialist."

She chuckled at that. They sat on the sand and Alex started to build a mound for a fire. He pulled out two flintstones from the folds of his robes and said, "Did you know sand can burn? It's a trick my mother taught me," he said and lit a bonefire of sand, blue and red. "She was the daughter of the shaman and he doesn't like my father, they're always arguing with each other."

"Sounds interesting," Nomi said, "My mother gave me a mission in this godforsaken place and I can't come home until I complete it."

"What's the mission? Maybe I can help you."

"I need to find a boy who has wondered into the desert here, at the far reaches of the desert actually, near the fortress."

Alex scowled, "We don't go there. It's a dangerous place."

"Can you help me though? I doubt I can cross the desert alone." Nomi used her succubuss charms on him, smiling softly, willing herself to develop a small blush on her cheeks and making her eyes widen slightly, let her hair down and flow with the wind as she developed a mental link with the boy, all the more strengthened by the connection with the dragon egg. Alex melted.

"I'll help you," he said, "But we will need to hurry. My father's going to give chase with his men, I can assure you."

Nomi smiled and pecked Alex with a kiss on his cheek. Alex looked at her in surprise and gulped softly. His heart felt like it was going to burst. His pulse raced as the succubus charms did their work on him.

"Thank you, Alex Wong."

"A-anytime," Alex said with a crooked smile.

They ate nothing that night and Nomi went to sleep hungry but glad that she had secured an ally in her grasp. Good, she thought with glee. My plan to take the throne from under the Queen's nose is working beautifully so far.

The next morning they journeyed on and although they went with no breakfast Alex showed her how to live in the desert. "For water, we can do two things, take it from cactus plants or summon it from the bowels of the Earth."

"You can do water magic?" asked Princess Nomi, afraid and excited at the same time. A water user was quite rare.

"Indeed," said Alex, "Everyone can do it, its not that hard."

"What do you mean? I thought only Ice people can do Ice magic and Fire people can do fire magic and-"

Alex laughed. "That's just a fairy tale," he said. "My father can do fire magic and water magic at the same time. Quite hard because they're both opposites and all. You just have to be skilled and powerful. Watch this." He lifted both his hands to the sky and back down, over and over, and Nomi watched amazed as water slowly at first began to rise up from the sand but speed up like a gusher. "Drink up," Alex said with a smile.

----

Naruto charged through a shimmering pink barrier, Rassuel hot on his heels and stopped abrubtly when he came face to face with what looked like a dinosaur, except it had jaws literally a mile wide that touched the sky, and a serpent body, coiled and ready to strike. "What the hell are you…?" he asked with amazement. Rassuel came to a stop beside him and quickly explained.

"A locust snake, amazing," he said, "I didn't know these things can be so big…"

"I didn't know anything can be this big…" Naruto said wide eyed.

"Oi Naruto, let me show you a little trick I picked up from one of my soldiers. Its easy if you know sand bending." Rassuel waved his fingers like he was controlling puppet strings and the sand rose up into the air, became red like blood and changed shape to form something that looked like a rocket launcher. "You have to be careful with these things because they're still hot but look," he made the launcher freeze up and then he grabbed it, pointed the barrel at the giant monster and pulled the trigger. A blast shook the ground but the monster twisted and the missile missed, exploding away into the sky. For its size the monster was amazingly fast.

"Holy crap, with a weapon like that this would be so easy!" Naruto exclaimed as he witnessed the explosion shake the foundations of the earth below them.

"It's not easy to handle," said Rassuel, "But it does give off a big bang."

"That monster's fast," Naruto said just as the monster charged with its big jaws.

"This time I'm not going to miss," said Rassuel as he pulled the trigger again, this time the missile didn't miss. It launched right into the beast's red gullet. Another explosion. Organs and blood flew into the air, bathing the pair in purple liquids. "Ugh…" said Naruto. "Messy."

Rassuel grinned, "Naruto, this was a pregnant beast you know. No wonder it was so easy that this basic technique could defeat it."

"W-what?"

"I mean sure this rocket launcher has a big boom, but a turtle could dodge this thing. It's useless against the more mobile opponents."

"Like those bees…" Naruto said softly, "They took my hand, one day I'll pay them back for it."

Rassuel put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Revenge is an ugly thing," he said. "It draws you in and destroys you from the inside. Let it go, Naruto."

"But my hand's gone! I can't make jutsus, I can't do anything!"

"I don't need jutsus and you don't either. They are just shortcuts that only babies use. Go right to the source of power Naruto."

"Where's that?"

"In your heart," Rassuel said, "Love is the greatest source of power. Remember it."

Naruto nodded, "Thank you… I guess."

"Come on, let's blow this shit up and rescue those water people."

"Make a launcher for me too!"

"Make it yourself."

"You've changed Rassuel," Naruto said, "You've become… meaner somewhat… no that's not it, you've become-"

"Cut the crap Naruto, I'm just tired. It's been a long fucking week, and once we're done your little job we'll hire a cruiser and sail the world, got it?"

Naruto grinned, "Got it." Suddenly several mini versions of the locust serpent rose up from the sand, their beady eyes glinting yellow with malice and bloodlust.

"Come on, lets blow this shit up," Rassuel said, and pulled the trigger three times. They didn't even have a chance.

"That's a powerful gun there," Naruto said. Rassuel sneered, "Only pussies use guns."

"Then why are you using it?" asked Naruto.

"Because I'm a pussy," he said and blew up another slithery locust serpent rising from the sand.

"Guns won't work against the guards, I don't think," said Naruto as the two relaxedly walked through the beastial area, blowing up any of the locust serpents coming out of the sand. When they burrowed out they were slow so the trick was to get them before their bodies were completely out of the sand. That was hard because sometimes they came up right under you so Rassuel had to blow up the ground they were standing on a couple times too. It really interrupted their conversation about guns.

"You're right. Any guard worth his salt would use a few blasts and destroy us."

"So what are we going to do?"

"Blow them up first," Rassuel said grinning from ear to ear, "And for that we need two guns."

Naruto groaned.

"Just kidding. Seriously though, these guns are not good enough to use against professionals. Do you know why Naruto?"

"Why?"

"Because the load time is too slow. The sand makes friction you see, and the ice barely helps. Besides its easier to use chakra than guns, but…"

"You just like blowing things up don't you."

"Hmph. I was a soldier you know…"

"Whatever," Naruto said and yawned. "At this rate you'll be doing all the work."

"Not like you can do anything…"

"I can do a few blasting tricks too."

"But can you mold sand?"

"Not yet," said Naruto, frowning. "But its coming. Watch this." He made the sand rise a few feet in a dune. "See that?"

"Keep working on it," Rassuel said.

----

The fortress that held the water people was a black spidery thing made out of frozen lava and ash. It was strong as well, and big… guarded by over five hundred guards. The fifty thousand or so water people were not slaughtered like animals because they were people too and while the Queen was indeed a bit cruel she wasn't cruel enough to commit genocide. The political ramifications alone could destroy her so she kept the water people there in their little prisons. As the pair approached making a dust storm come the way of the guards, the pair elicited much cries of surprise and awe as the old one blasted through the beasts one by one with rocket launchers and sand molded weapons… slow but effective. And the good thing was Rassuel never ran out of ammo.

"Here comes the bad part," Naruto said with a sigh. "This isn't going to be easy."

"Certianly not as easy as pulling a trigger. Fundamentally you are right, but you see, I know some of the guards and let me share with you a little secret." Rassuel said with a wink. "Some of them might even be loyal to me."

"Don't get your hopes up old man," Naruto said, looking around the fortress with a distasteful eye as he glared at the rusted fences holding the terrified water people in. They were dressed in gray robes, and had brown faces like the sand below them. The robes were tattered and torn but they seemed to wear it as a sort of pride because the symbol of water – a rising wave – they wore proudly on their chests and arm sleeves. Though the water people were defeated they had pride and honor but the fight was gone out of them. Beaten out judging by the scars across their kick-shod faces.

Naruto sighed, "Why do you people have to do this…?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you have to enslave these honorable people?" Naruto frowned. "I don't get it."

"Ambition is something born out of hatred and jealousy Naruto, and we are indeed ambitious… I was too, but now, I have grown out of it."

"But I'm ambitious as well. I mean, I want to become the Hokage so my village would recognize me. Is that born out of hatred and jealousy as well?"

"I don't suspect you've had an easy childhood, right Naruto?"

Naruto shook his head. "The villagers hated me, and wanted to kill me. That's what got me here in the first place."

"So your ambition is born out of your fear. If you are the Hokage, those villagers won't hurt or hate you anymore right? Fear and a need of acceptance."

"So… what should I do? Quit trying to be a Hokage?" demanded Naruto angrily.

"I don't know," said Rassuel, surprising the young Demon Container. "I don't have the answers you're looking for. That's something you'll have to figure out on your own."

"Lets continue the conversation later," said Naruto, "I don't trust these guards."

The guards wore red robes with golden chains hanging on their necks, arms filled with staffs or swords. Their eyes caught Naruto's attention the most, they were soldier eyes, deadly and without any sort of emotion whatsoever. Also, they were dressed luxuriously, so they were obviously members of nobility. They got the easy jobs, they got to train their skills all day and drink and gamble at night. These nobility reminded Naruto of a long lost memory of Uchiha Sasuke, how they were both orphans, one got favoured, the other, despised. Back then Naruto hadn't understood it but now he did: you get the treatment of your position. Naruto realized something: he hated positions. Positions were made to be broken and Naruto decided he would break these nobility, show them a thing or two about Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage… maybe.

"Oi, state your name and business!" shouted the commander of the Royal Guard, an old veteran with blue eyes sparkling on a wave of bloodshot red, and a nose as sharp as a dagger, a mouth tight like a thread, pasty grey like a tombstone and a cutlass in each hand, golden handle bars gleaming because of the two suns overhead.

"General of the Army!" shouted Rassuel, "Is what I am. This here is my friend. You will let us pass!"

"Sir? Is it really you? The old general!"

"Armidallo, long time no see, old friend," said Rassuel laughing as he ran up to the aged veteran and hugged him. Naruto watched transfixed as Armidallo the commander smirked and stabbed Rassuel in the back with one of his cutlasses. Blood spurted out and Rassuel fell to his knees on the sand, looking shocked and wide eyed. He fell to the ground, face facing the sky.

Naruto ran toward him, and heard Rassuel whisper, "The sky is beautiful…"

"Rassuel!" shouted Naruto, tears falling down from his face. "Are you okay? Are you hurt, don't leave me! Rassuel don't dye goddamit!"

But Rassuel's eyes shut and Naruto felt the man's pulse slow down to nothing. It was too late, Rassuel… his first friend, his only friend in this new world was dead.

"Hey boy, get up!" demanded the commander in a loud obnoxious voice. Naruto stood up, hate pouring out from every part of his body, eyes turned red.

"What the-"

Naruto's body covered in a haze of red aura of the Kyuubi's energies, a tail grew from his backside. It was made out of pure chakra, and then came another tail and another until there were three tails. "No… Rassuel… why did you die…" Naruto choked out in anguish. Another tail sprouted. Naruto was crimson red, and particles of sand rose into the air, covering the area in a cloud of dust.

"YOU ALL WILL PAY!" Naruto shouted and charged at the commander and the five hundred men at his back.

---

"We need to go faster. We must capture Naruto before he reaches the fortress," said Princess Nomi to Alex Wong as they trudged through the sandy desert chewing on a roasted chiken-dinosaur that Alex had brought down with a sand molded trap.

"I see, his name is Naruto huh? Is he your boyfriend?"

"W-what? Why are you asking me that? Of course not."

"Good because I think I'm falling for you."

"Err… thanks but can we focus on the mission please," said Nomi.

"Ouch, you're cold."

"Well what do you want me to be? My life is at stake here!"

"You don't seem to understand that I gave up my entire status within my clan for you! The least you could be is a bit grateful."

"Hey, I never asked you to come okay, so just shout your mouth and keep walking."

Alex Wong glared at her, feeling a hot rush of anger rise within his belly. "Its your fault I'm in this mess. You know why I did it? Because I love you, Princess-" He spat princess out with utter contempt. "I wanted to be your knight in shining armour but I guess I'm just not enough am I? You probably have lots of suitors back in your kingdom who are loads better than me." Alex said bitterly. "Fine, its okay, I don't care. I'll take you to your little boyfriend and-"

"Alex, shut up," Nomi said and suddenly kissed him on the lips, a long and slow kiss that felt like heaven to Alex. "I do like you but… I've never liked you like the other men back home. I mean, I just thought they were pawns in a game but with you I feel different, really."

"You're just saying that," Alex said, "Don't talk, please."

"Fine be that way, you bastard!" Nomi said, and though she didn't show it she had actually told the truth and inside she was hurt that Alex didn't believe her. If it were any other man, Nomi would have been nice as sugar to them but with Alex she felt like she could act normal, like she could act like herself. Unnoticed by Alex a tear came to her eyes but she wiped it away quickly with the back of her brown robe sleeve.

"There's a tunnel up ahead," Alex said coldly. "The purple tunnel leads to the Fourth Star Portal, which will take us right on the outskirts of the fortress. From there we can turn around and catch the boy coming to us."

"Okay," Nomi said, as cold as ice.

They walked in silence, before Alex broke out, "I'm sorry okay, I've never had a girlfriend before, and I thought you genuinely liked me. Guess I was wrong but its okay, really, I should have never-"

"I do like you though, why don't you believe me?" Nomi said in frustration. "What the hell is wrong with you? You're as dense as a block of wood."

"Err… okay," Alex said awkwardly, "I guess…" He leaned forward, testing the edges a bit and kissed her. It wasn't like before, Nomi was harsher this time, biting down on his lower lip and teasingly moving away.

"Focus on the mission," she said with a sultry smile. "We'll continue this later."

With a flushed face Alex nodded, "Right."

---

The two Uchihas raced across the desert in intense speed, eager as tigers to sink their claws in their prey. Already they could feel the Kyuubi's energy rise up far off and they laughed as they ran the lengths of the desert.

It would be time for an immense battle royale soon, Naruto on one side, the Guards on the other, Alex and Nomi and the Uchihas on their own respective sides, and of course who can forget the water people with their anger and hate of the Guards. Perhaps they had been planning a rebellion, just waiting for the right time to come.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: First Blood

----

Rassuel's Life: Flashback Chapter

"When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind."  
-Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)

----

In the olden times, about a hundred or so years before Naruto came into the world there were two main continents and on one of them there lived the seven foot people. These people were taller than anybody else and within their cities and tribes there were two sects: the ice and the water. A civil war errupted between the ice sect and the water sect for the control of the land. It was called the sixty year war because it lasted for sixty years and the main champion of this chapter is Rassuel and his conquests in war as well as his downfall, owing to his sister the current Queen of the Ice.

---

"Father, you called for me?" asked Rassuel with eyes that darted left and right, taking in the chamber room they were in. It was the chemical room where his father worked and researched his chemical warfare techniques, his greatest hobby and passion: science. "I mean... I know you are busy and all with your work so this must be very important."

"It is quite important," said his father, a big man in his early forties. He was tall and muscular, looking like a boulder with his short black beard and the great hammer that rested on his back, which he had used when he was on the field. He still carried the weapon as a momento of his warring times against the much hated water people. His son, a lowly soldier with no future prospects right now stood before him. "I am dissapointed in you, Rassuel. How old are you now?"

"Fourteen, sir," said Rassuel, mentally sighing. He knew how this conversation would go. They had had it many times already. Around them test tubes and glass containers filled with coloured liquids bubbled on steel shelves. The room was small, cramped for a science lab, the two tables at the front near the windows overlooking the desert were crammed with papers and books, and a broken ink bottle as well, spilling ink drop by drop on the hardwood floor. The floor had been polished only recently and Rassuel winced at the stains the purple ink was making on the varnished wooden floor.

"-so I am sending you to Mack Ga Har," said his father.

"Huh what?" Rassuel said, jerking his head in surprise. He turned his gaze from the falling ink toward his father's grizzled scarred from war face. "Sending me to Mack Ga Har? Father, are you insane? I'll get killed on the front lines!"

"I have had it with yoU!" yelled his father, whose nickname was Blackbeard for his black beard and hammer. He had his war face on, the serious look in the blue eyes, the way his lips pressed against each other to the point of turning white (except they were blackened from frosbite). "All your life you have been just a dissapointment, you never did well in school like your sister, you are a failure in being a leader, and your battle duels result in failure. I said I've had it-"

"But its not my fault," protested Rassuel, "You're just setting high expectations for me. You can't really expect me to be able to-"

"I do," said Blackbeard grimly, "Tomorrow I am going to be leading the Mack Ga Har battle, and you will be there along my side."

"That's even worse, now we'll both get killed!"

"I need to go there aif I want additional funding from the damned council, and I am taking you along with me. Your days living in peace and complacency are numbered. This city just makes us fat, I say. So pack your things because we're leaving first thing tomorrow morning. Understand?"

Rassuel sighed, "Yes father," he said but inside he was seething. He knew his limitations of course: he was weak, his father had thundered that fact inside him all his life, but he had always expected to be left alone with his books. He loved reading: he read everything at the libraries in school and elsewhere and in his room he had shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls and parchments. He liked to study things; he studied the human anatomy so although he wasn't the best with ice battle techniques in his school tournaments, he could hold his own with a few basic martial arts and surprise techniques and plans. He knew his weaknesses: his lack of skill in battling, his lack of skill in everything that required physical prowess and toughness, but his strength he knew and prided well: his mind. It was quick and sharp and he had a gift of making up plans on the spot, lots and lots of plans. Some of them were good too!

"Dad... I'm going to get killed," said Rassuel, utterly defeated. "How are you going to feel having a dead son? After mother-"

"Don't bring her into this," warned Blackbeard. "I'm done with you. Your guilt trips won't work on me anymore so get out of here. Wake up early tomorrow," he said with a smirk.

"Dammit," Rassuel swore under his breath and walked away down the hallways of the castle they were guests in. The Red Glass Castle was the center of the great city of Nagahn, and the castle had the greatest library in the world, along with the greatest scientists, philosophers and explorers as guests. His father had got the position of head chemist in the democratic country of Ice, and although they were at war with the Water Kingdom (who were not pleased at the Ice country breaking away from their little empire which consisted of over ten island countries), science still progressed under the leadership of the lord of Red Glass Castle, Lord Wyngar.

He headed straight to the library because the library was the only place he could relax among his books, he would lose himself in hours of study tonight he thought to himself. It might just be the last study session he would ever have now that he was going to Mack Ga Har, the castle that the Water and the Ice people were bitterly fighting over with everything they had. It wasn't commonplace for tens of thousands of soldiers to be sent to Mack Ga Har from either side. Mack Ga Har was a key position; the center of the trading routes to the Fire Nation and the Earth-and-Wind Empire. There were two wars going on currently, or so Rassuel had heard from his best war-mongering friend Hades, who went to the town school with him. One was the civil war of the Water Empire, and the other was the war between Earth and Wind. They had once been a powerful empire, both of them, but now everybody was fighting except the Fire Nation. Those firebugs were the only ones profiting from the wars, getting fat on their laurels trading weapons to the highest bidder. But the Fire Nation were on alert too and had over two hundred thousand soldiers ready to move against either war zones if necessary. Currently the Fire Nation had the greatest war forces in the world, including over six hundred navy ships, forty castles interspread throughout the other continent, and twenty castles interspred throughout the Water continent, all disguised under the name of embassies and ambassadors.

The Water Kingdom will win this war, predicted Rassuel. Hades predicted otherwise. He had said, "What are you talking about? We have the best soldier in our kingdom!"

"who is it?" Rassuel asked.

"Me!" said Hades and burst out in laughter. Ah school... good times, Rassuel thought as he walked through the stark hallways of the Red Glass Castle and down wet moss covered stairs, reaching the first floor (the labs were on the second floor). The library was protected by two double iron doors barred with a large rusted bar. But the library was always open and the old archivian who worked at the library liked Rassuel enough to even let him borrow some of the parchments from time to time, despite not being of age to have a library account. He was only fourteen years old, and to have an official account you needed to be sixteen, or if you were a soldier but Rassuel had never fought before... tomorrow though it was all going to change. Tomorrow he would become a real soldier. He wondered briefly if he should run down and tell Hades about it but he decided not to. Now all he wanted to do was lose himself in his books and drown out the rest of the world in a sea of handwritten scrolls.

He nodded at the Archivian, an old man who was half blind, wearing thick spectacles that were as big as his fist, curled. he had a long crooked nose, and a scar that ran straight down his nose, from the receeding hair line to his triangular chin which was covered in a gray goatee. The Archivian had aged wrinkled hands, long fingers like a spider's legs, and ears that resembled an elephantasaurus's ears. Suffice to say the ears stuck out most: they were so big, thought Rassuel.

He headed to a table and sat down, then sighed. The floor here was covered in muddy brown mats. When you entered through the doors there was the Archivian's desks, and then there were all the desks for regular people's use and beyond that a row of black shelves filled with books. He had wandered the shelves so many times, his only form of real exercise. Right now, he felt all his motivation for reading and seeking knowledge go down the drain as he thought about what would come tomorrow: first they would make a ten day journey to Mack Ga Har, then Blackbeard would take command and he would be stuck in the barracks or he would be actually forced to fight. Hades had once said that there were soldiers who were only eight years old. Prodigies, he had called them with envy. "They are some of the best soldiers the Ice Council's got," Hades said, "I wish I was a prodigy."

"I don't," Rassuel had said from the corners of his lips. They had been meditating in the poppy fields along with the rest of the three hundred student schools. "They die young I heard."

"You want to live forever or something? Live hard, die young!" Hades exclaimed and became the receiving end of the teachers' glares.

Rassuel got up from the desk and started wandering through the shelves, staring at nothing in particuar until he came across a book that practically drew his eye to it: it was red leather, and when he pulled it out, he noticed the volume was very thin. The title, in curly golden script, read: "Survival by Uchiha Itachi."

'Uchiha Itachi... no goddam way, I thought all the books he had written were destroyed in the fire of Bak Th' La...! How the hell did this come here?" He held it up, and realized that it was so thin it could have easily been missed between two books. So this was most likely a super rare edition. Just what had he stumbled across? Was this his key to... his heart raced... survive the battle?

Well the title of the book did say surivival right? That meant he could survive, or should be able to survive if he followed the book's instructions. 'Stop getting ahead of yourself, Rassy,' a little voice said from his head that sounded like his sister's. She had always called him Rassy, never guessing how close it was to his real name. Thank god she doesn't know my real name or even this book won't help me... he thought to himself and opened the book. It showed a picture of Uchiha Itachi with a dagger clenched between his teeth and the Sharingaan activated. He was riding a dragon and following him was a monstrous octopus like being with legs that were as long as the entire dragon's body. They were in a valley, Rassuel thought seeing the mountains rise on either side. Hmm... the pages were old, yellowish, very old so it looked genuine enough. Being a book lover, he prided himself on his judgement. He turned the page, there was the title again: Survival, and just below it, in block letters: Tips and Tricks. He turned the next page and read the first tip.

"Tip: 1: Don't talk: The more you talk the more you make mistakes. If you work with a partner or other people, keeping silence is the best way to get the least possible responsibilities." Rassuel laughed a bit, and then looking left and right and seeing nobody, he put the thin book under his belt pocket and covered it with his red sweater so nobody could see it. His heart hammered. He had never stolen a book from the library before, but this was too valuable: this was life and death, so he had to steal this book. As he walked out of the library, the Archivian was absorbed in his work of administration in the black ledger he had out in front of him on his desk. He never noticed Rassuel walking out of the library, and with a book no less.

Rassuel forced himself to walk calmly to his room, which was on the second floor right next to the labs. His room was small, had a large redwood desk, and a shelf covered in books, and a bed in the far corner as well as a closet filled with clothes. On the white paint peeling walls there were a number of posters depicting his favorite animal: the turtle. They were slow and stupid and weak, it was true, yet they won against the rabbit and not only that but they had a life span of one hundred and more years. He sat on the bed and leafed through the book, taking it all in. He absorbed himself in Itachi's Survival Guide for the remainder of the day and only reluctantly packed his belongings (three pairs of clothes, six of his favorite books, he didn't want to carry much) into a brown suitcase and slept that night, happy and relieved with the book clutched against his chest and the covers over his body. He slept well that night.

He was up before sunset, and with a tired sigh he walked to the cafeteria on the bottom floor where he ordered a danish and a bottle of red wine for his breakfast. He needed something strong to start off the day. Amin, the fat cook who ran the cafeteria must have been told that he was going off to war and was unusually nice, putting a little chocolate mint next to the danish and not protesting he was too young for wine. Amin had a sombre look on his round whiskered face, and in a singsong voice he said, "Good luck!" as Rassuel left the cafeteria. He went back to his room and read some more before he heard somebody bang on the door, and he heard his father's voice: "Are you ready to leave?"

Rassuel walked toward the door and opened it, and was reminded of Tip number one, don't talk much. So he said nothing. Blackbeard's roaming eyes wandered over to the suitcase, and he nodded approvingly. "Good, come on, we don't have much time before our caravan leaves."

Tip number seventeen flashed across his mind: 'Ask lots of questions whenever possible.'

"Who is running the caravan?" Rassuel asked, saying the first question he could think of.

Blackbeard grimaced, "Its Tante, the bastard, he's a villain he is, and I want you to stay away from him, understand, Rassuel?"

"Why?"

"He's a crook and a coward, I know their type, just swindlers and lazy bums they are."

"Hmm," said Rassuel. As they walked out of the castle, he said nothing but he did give one last look toward Red Glass, with its grey turrets and its red tinted church like windows, as well as its moat that was filled with black dirty water made by the chemical discharges from the labs. Across the moat on a bridge there was a cart and two horses in front of it, and who he guessed was Tante, a skinny man with lots of black hair and dirty fingernails, as well as a shiny dagger tucked under his belt. It's poisoned, thought Rassuel instantly, thinking of tip number 213, always keep your weapons poisoned, and assume your enemy's weapons are poisoned too.

Rassuel realized he didn't have any weapons to fight with except his hands and a few elementary Ice blasts. It was not going to be enough to fight the calibre of soldiers in Mack Ga Har. He would need to survive long enough to learn some good spells, some tricks to help him realize his potential. The school and the instructors just didn't do it for him. As he entered the cart, which was covered with black leather so they were launched in complete darkness save for a slit of early morning light coming through the black curtains on the doorways. The seats were a dark maroon that looked like blood, and the place smelled of salt and seafood. As the cart jolted on the cobbled streets, they could hear the hooves of the horses going clump-clump on the streets. Rassuel opened the curtain a bit and looked at the village that surrounded Red Glass Castle: a school, a hospital, a few bakeries and grocery stores, houses, farms, not much to miss. But he would miss his friend Hades. He knew he wouldn't miss his sister though, Blackbeard didn't consider soldiering to be a woman's profession, though his sister (he always called her by the nickname Elise -- everyone had a nickname since using real names were dangerous thanks to those Uchiha Name Assassins, most people were wary of using their real names) was much better at fighting than he was, being the best of the class as well as the school.

As the cart passed through the village Rassuel found himself slowly missing his home, the home that had been his for the last five or six years. He had lived in this village; knew the people, and as the cart reached the outskirts of the village toward the foresty ferny floor he suddenly got an urgent longing deep in his heart that felt like nostalgia, except something different. Startled, Rassuel realized that he was feeling fear. He was scared and afraid but this fear was completely different, somehow greater and somehow lesser and baser like an animal's. He was scared, but of what? He couldn't say. Not the current hardships or the future hardships he would have to face, but it was as if he had lost a part of himself when the cart reached the windy path that cuts through the forest that surrounded the town.

Then there was nothing and the cart sped off into the early morning, and the journey began. It ended seven days later without incident. Rassuel saw many things on his travel, mostly towns and villages burnt and scarred by war, and he saw the vast desert they would have to pass through to reach Mak Ga Har.

"We need to be careful when crossing this desert," said Blackbeard as they walked from the last town on the outskirts of the desert (it was called White Rose) with a few cases of supplies for the journey. They would need to walk across the desert now, nobody was willing to drive them through the war zone that the desert had become, not to mention the animals that lived in the desert or the bandits roaming around, ready to pounce on any stray carts or travellers.

"I don't have a weapon," said Rassuel. This had been weighing heavily on his mind. Being without a weapon, he could not fight. Since he could not fight, what use was he in the coming war? Besides, he needed a weapon to be able to survive and fight back, something he was now eager to do. The question remained, what was his offensive techniques? His defensive techniques were running away (the best one in his opinion) and doing a Furkin blast, which was basically channeling your inner energy into a ball of purple light at the base of your wrist and flinging it toward your enemy, but it didn't do much damage and could only be used as a distraction because of it. So he wasn't good at any techniques but with a sword or something and a bit of physical training he could have a sporting chance at coming out of the war at Mack Ga Har alive. He needed a chance at least because a chance was better than nothing.

"Your weapon...? Hmm, to be honest I do not know," said Blackbeard. "I have my hammer and my explosive potions, but you... I'm sure the men at base will lend you a dagger and a sword, not to worry."

"But what about right now? We are sure to meet some sort of danger in the desert."

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it?" asked Blackbeard, annoyed. "Don't bother me with your pesky troubles, if you really want a weapon make one yourself." He strided further in the path leaving Rassuel to eat his dust so to speak. The boy seethed inside, because he knew his father was purposely ignoring him. But why? What was the purpose? Nothing Rassuel could see. "So troublesome," whispered Rassuel and with a sigh he continued on his journey following in his father's footsteps through the dangerous desert and toward the fearsome battlesite of Mack Ga Har.

The desert was hot and the two red balls in the sky were blindingly bright. As they trudged across the sandy desert and toward Mack Ga Har, they did not speak. That night when they made camp they ate a meager dinner consisting of a bowl of oatmeal each that tasted like cardboard and an apple as well as a strip of meat that came from an animal Rassuel had never even heard about: Minnowa Cow. It was heavily spiced and salted well. Blackbeard called it, "Soldier food. Eat up, its good for you!"

"Hnn," was all Rassuel said to that.

They broke camp the next morning and started another thirty six hour day toward Mack Ga Har, drinking sparingly on their water bottles. There was no oasis in the middle of the desert, at least not that Blackbeard or Rassuel had heard of and so they would not get a refill until the trip was over. Another three days perhaps. The walk was getting boring by now and Rassuel almost wished for a few bandits for a bit of excitement. Almost, he still had a great sense of caution about danger - there would be danger enough in Mack Ga Har - that he did not want to risk his life. But despite his wishes or perhaps because of it, the universe works in strange ways after all, three pale women on horseback rode toward them, bearing sharp steel cutlasses and completely covered in white cloth. The only thing that showed were their hands and their stern cold stonelike faces, their grey hawkish eyes bearing down upon them as if Blackbeard and Rassuel were nothing more than worms meant to be destroyed.

"What is the meaning of this?" roared out Blackbeard as the trio of women approached. The leader, the one in front, said in a high octone voice that was both commanding and innocent like at the same time, "Unload your possessions in front of us."

"I refuse," said Blackbeard.

Rassuel decided to say nothing, he certainly did not want attention to be called upon him.

"If you do, you die, take your pick."

"Then we fight," said Blackbeard, "Me and my son against you three."

"Dad, perhaps we should just-"

"Don't be a disgrace, son!"

"I don't even have a weapon," snapped Rassuel. The women watched this outplay with amusement dancing in their eyes and a ghost of a smile on their lips. The smile bespoke of horrible things to come though.

"Attack!" said the lead woman and pulling out her cutlass from her scabbard she leapt up off the horse in one graceful move and ventured toward Blackbeard. Rassuel watched in fascination as Blackbeard pulled out his hammer and tried to rain blows on the women but she danced away out of the jaws of danger just in the knick of time. The other two women, riding two brown horses while the lead had ridden a white one, charged at Blackbeard and the leader removed herself from Blackbeard's visage and started to attack Rassuel with furor.

"Furkin blast," whispered Rassuel and threw a purple ball of energy at the women. It exploded at her feet, bathing them all in a blinding purple light. Rassuel ran toward the horses where he had spotted an extra cutlass strapped to the horse's leather saddle. He pulled out the sword, a rusted almost broken thing and waited for the purple light to dissapear. Gradually reducing he made out the shapes of Blackbeard holding off the three women by himself with his hammer, but he was slow and weakening as the women rained cuts and blows, slipping into his defences like water through cloth.

"Rassuel! Fight goddamit!" shouted Blackbeard over the blows. Rassuel nodded quickly and charged at one of the women but all at once they rushed back so there was a few feet between the pair and the trio. They all paused to grab their breath. The lead said, "I'm impressed with you boy, most of the travellers in our clutches turn tail and run but you... hmm..." She smiled, canine fangs visible through the sides of her mouth. "My name's Zisha, and these are my two younger sisters, Weinin and Lassie. They're twins."

In all honesty Rassuel saw little resemblance between the pair of them but he decided not to vocalize his thoughts. "What do you want?" he asked.

"Your packs and supplies of course."

"Well we can't give them to you so too bad."

"Then we'll have to take them by force."

Blackbeard stepped forward, "Bring it on," he said in a deep voice. "We are ready for battle."

"Very well then," said Zisha and charged at Rassuel who tried to block with the stolen cutlass. It turned out to be unnecassary as Blackbeard blocked the blow for him with his mighty hammer and swung it again at her side. It hit Zisha in the stomach, but she leapt away at the last second so the blow did not harm her too much.

"You don't realize who we are," said Blackbeard. "We are more than a much for you three little girls. Go on home why don't you?"

Zisha sneered. "You don't seem to realize that fighting with cutlasses aren't our only skill. Nor are we alone in this fight." She whistled, a noise that pervaded the air, and Rassuel felt a wind strike his face. He looked around and saw with a sinking feeling a horde of warriors, charging at them on horseback. They were trapped in a circle of charging warriors.

Leaning against each other, back to back, their situation looked grim. "What are we going to do now father?" asked Rassuel.

"Son... be strong." Blackbeard said grimly as he looked at the approaching army of horseback riders.

"Surrender now and you'll be spared," screeched Zisha in triumph as her eyes glittered with bloodlust. Rassuel knew instantly that the girl wouldn't mind just slaughtering them all like mere animals and he felt a shiver go down his spine as he thought about the danger they were in. Heart thudding in his chest he found that he did not like this kinds of situation, a discovery that was not totally new. In time he would find courage and strength when facing danger and battle but now he was in his salad days, green as a toad, new and unconfidant in his skills and abilities. He had a right to not having much confidence in his ability, he was a fair judge to himself in classifying himself as weak. It was true, he was weak, he was not meant to fight in battle. He was meant to sit in a library amid the scent of old books, reading by sunlight in the day time and candle light in the night. A seeker of knowledge he was, a student of information, not a warrior. But now, he was forced to become what he most despised and feared, a fighter.

Yet how could he fight against these odds? No, it was best to bide his time and wait for some miracle to occur. Perhaps his father - a warrior greatly skilled and very able in combat according to Rassuel's classifications - had an idea, or a trick up his sleeve. Perhaps an army of Ice Warriors would come to rescue them, or perhaps, he thought snarkily, a Greek god will descend from the heavens and save them all, ala duex ex machina.

No, who am I kidding, a voice deep in his skull echoed, I am screwed aren't I? And he answered as succintly as possible, "Yup," not realizing he said it aloud.

"We fight to the death," Blackbeard said.

"What? No," said Rassuel. "Are you insane? We'll get killed."

"Its the honorable way, the warrior way. Rassuel, its time for you to take responsibility. We fight, and we try our best. Its all we can do."

"Or we could surrender," said Rassuel.

Blackbeard turned his steel black gaze upon his son and glared with hate. "That's a cowardly thing to do, I will never do it."

Rassuel saw he had to convince his father of surrendering if there was anyway out of this situation they were in. If they surrendered they might just live. It was doubtful, but where there's a way there's hope, or was it something else? Pre-destruction era was cumbersome to remember. The point was, he had to find a way to make his father surrender. Perhaps he could appeal to his logical and analytical side?

"Father, a warrior's path sometimes leads to defeat. We can't all be victorious in our battles. It is best to live and fight another day than to fight and die here and today."

"No," said Blackbeard. "Never surrender! Never give up!"

Rassuel sighed mentally - if the logical way didn't appeal to the dense man, perhaps emotions would. "Father, I'm only fourteen years, I am too young to be a warrior."

"You are one!" growled Blackbeard, "You have the right genes."

"But I don't want to die!"

"Coward."

"I want to have many battles before I die, I don't want to die on my first one! That's humiliating." Rassuel lied, of course, he didn't want any battles whatsoever. But it did make his father pause, and Rassuel saw the bear-like man grudingly nod.

"You're right," said Blackbeard, heaving a sigh. "Okay, we surrender," he shouted the last two words to the approaching horsemen and threw his hammer in front of his feet.

The horsemen approached them cautiously and slowly, wearing metal facemasks to hide their features and expressions. All Rassuel could see was a sea of iron-clad knights with armor, ready for a tremendous battle.

"Surrender, huh?" said Zisha with amusement. "I like this very much, I really do, but I'm afraid its too late. Men, kill them."

At just this moment Rassuel heard horns blowing from the wind, but he thought it must have come from inside his head. So this is what it feels like to be on the verge of death, huh? Interesting, he thought. Then Blackbeard shook him tightly on the shoulder, "Son we're saved!"

"What?" Rassuel realized that the horns blowing were not coming from inside him but from outside, from far away. A party was approaching, kicking up sand and dust as they charged toward the knights. It was the Warriors of the Ice, skating on the sand on boards of ice like they were water surfing. Only this supposedly kid's sport was called sand serfing. Rassuel had never conidered it being used as a practical tool of warfare, though the speed that you could go on the ice boards were tremendous indeed. He kicked himself for not considering such a tactic. Mentally he considered himself an innovative thinker of all sorts, including war tactics. But even though he felt a bit of dissapointment for not having thought up of the ingenious idea of using a child's game for warfare, he was glad nonetheless that on this day he was not going to get killed.

The fight began and ended quickly with the warriors of the Ice slaughtering the knights with ease that came from strict and rigid military training. They used an assortment of spells that destroyed and demolished the horses the knights were riding on, making the enemy lose their balance. Then a wave from the back unleashed a storm of frozen arrows to impale the knights through their hearts, making this a battle won with zero casualties. Throughout the confusion, Blackbeard picked up his hammer and leapt toward the twins, while Zisha sleaked out of the way and beat a hasty retreat.

"Oh no, you aren't going anywhere," thought Rassuel. He wasn't even aware of what he was doing until he realized he was charging with the stolen cutlass clutched as tight as possible in both hands as he chased the woman responsible for this battle in the first place. And when he was aware of what he was doing, he felt powerless to stop it because he actually enjoyed this battle. He enjoyed his arteries thundering, his pulse quickining, he enjoyed the warrior's spirit, as his father called it, course through his veins, making him run faster to catch his prey. Like a hawk he swooped down with the sword and in one slice he cut through Zisha's digestive system, a clean cut that would have been clean save for the gusher of blood that spurted out of the open wound as two halves of Zisha fluttered toward the ground like a feather falling down from the sky. She stumbled, her body cut in two peices, and then a twitch later and she was dead.

Blackbeard caught up to Rassuel and most likely watched it happen, not intervening. There was a small smirk on his face however, and a triumphant gleam in his dancing eyes. He put the hammer away, he was among his warriors now, he would not need to fight here and now. "Rassuel," he said, walking up to his fourteen year old son. Putting a hand on his shoulder, light and gentle, he said, "I'm proud of you."

Then he walked away, leaving Rassuel to stare at the massacre unfolded before the boy's feet. I did this, Rassuel thought. I killed them, oh my god... He felt like vomiting except he found he could not move, could not even twitch a muscle but he knew he could if he wanted to. However his will to fight was gone, dissapeared like water draining from a full sink. There was nothing left except a sour sort of exhaustion that made his limbs feel like wood, that made him notice the tension in his neck and the throbbing pain in his lower back. Letting a deep breath out in a whoosh, he turned around, and walked toward his father. Blackbeard was joking around with the Warriors of the Ice. When he saw his approaching son, his smile reduced to a concerned look as he noticed the vacant and dull expression on Rassuel's face.

"Rassuel... son... are you okay?" asked Blackbeard as he moved closer to Rassuel. Slowly the boy nodded, but it seemed so forced and fake that Blackbeard knew something was wrong. Around them, the ice warriors crowded, their sand coloured faces grim and sad. "General, sir, its his first kill," said one of them. "He needs time, I think."

"You're right sergeant," said Blackbeard, "Come on, lets continue on the journey toward base. Hows the situation at Mack Ga Har?"

"Bad, sir," said the sergeant, his silver eyes grim. "We're losing ground horribly. Just last week we experienced a loss of sixty meters. If this trend continues, we'll be done for."

"I see, and who possesses the castle right now?"

"Nobody sir, we fire shells at the castle every ten minutes and so does the enemy. Its the dead zone, anybody goes on the castle grounds doesn't survive longer than a minute at best."

"Hmm... we are at a standstill, yes? So this will be tough to break."

"Yes sir," said the sergeant as they walked through the desert, having ditched the ice boards. It appeared that they only used those in emergencies, Rassuel noted noted from the corner of his mind, the part that wasn't obsessed with the horrible atrocity he had just commited. He felt sick with himself. He had just sliced a woman in half. Sliced!

And the blood... he felt nausious, and retched as they walked but the warriors pretended not to notice and all was well. He looked up at the sky and wondered...

...is that how I am going to die? Will I be killed in battle?

----

End Flashback

----

Rassuel's adventures are over, but Naruto Uzumaki's adventures are just beginning...

Back to Present Day.

----

Deep within the Fire Nation, in the city of the Purple Heart, doctor Graw lived in a modest home, enjoying a life of ease and comfort. His practice was located at Marshall Avenue, just two blocks away from his little villa where he lived alone - he liked it that way, having been a loner all his life. Using the latest medical technology and research, he helped cure patients, saved lives, performed surgery and found much satisfaction in his day job. At night however he was a different person, he was an evil serial killer who terrorized the Purple Heart city. Soon Naruto Uzumaki and Doc Graw are going to cross paths, and when they do the world will never be the same again...

----

Naruto Uzumaki was trapped in a haze of red hot anger, a sickness that welled up deep within him, from the Kyuubi came this rage, this heat, this energy. He processed the situation with surprising analysis: five hundred gaurds, three thousand prisoners, must kill!

Then a voice from deep within his cranium came to him, as if floating on a cloud high above in the sky. It was Rassuel's voice, dreamlike and detached. "Naruto, remember the promise... Naruto... don't do this."

Naruto snapped, blinked, took a deep breath and the red anger surrounding him vanished. His eye color returned to original, his facial muscles relaxed, the tension in his lower back reduced dramatically and he slumped to the ground. The commander laughed, "Boy, you had me scared for a second with your little light trick, but you're nothing but a little child. Go on home to mommy, kid."

Naruto didn't know what to do. His bravery, his never give up nature vanished with the blow dealt to his father figure in life, Rassuel. Now, Naruto was like a lost leaf floating down a stream, who knew where he would end up. Still, his hot nature still resided within him, and he opened his mouth to retort but some sense stopped him. Something restrained him from making his situation worse. Surprisingly, it was his brain that restrained him, that forced him to think his situation through, and think of his words before he uttered them in foolish haste. "Sir... I don't know where I am supposed to go," Naruto said as politely as possible, though when he did, something died within him. This ass kissing nature that he had just taken up was destroying his spirit. Never again, he promised himself. I have to be strong to protect my honor and integrity, and the people I love.

Use this as a learning tool, he told himself. Learn from this and don't make the same mistake again.

Don't make the same mistake of being too weak.

He was a defeated man now, all the fight had been forced out of him with one swoosh. Psychologically tramautized, he felt the burdens of the past few weeks rush onto him, his lost hand, his inability to master sand molding, the horror of being the container of the greatest demon in the world, it all crashed in on him, and though he wanted to break down and cry, the last remnants of whatever discipline and strength he had restrained him. There will be time for this later, he thought. For now, I have to escape this situation... this world... I have to...

To be honest he didn't know what to do anymore. He was lost, he was afraid. He was just a little child, a boat floating on the ocean of the world with no place to go and no destination. Naruto had no goal anymore. His previous goal of rescuing the water people seemed so far away, so silly, so stupid. Now, he felt a gray fog of exhaustion take over him, fatiguing his every muscle and tendon. His eyelids felt heavy, his belly felt full, and his legs felt weak. He wanted sleep, he wanted rest from his worldly pains but there was nobody left in this vast world that he had come across on. He missed his village, Konoha was familiar to him, Konoha was like a friend when he needed it in this black lake of lonliness that was the Universe. But he had lost that too, he had lost everything. A peice of wisdom floated toward him on the wings of invisible angels, saviors he could not see, nor hear, nor sense, but something told him they were there just the same. Angels watching over him, saving him from great peril and disaster. He would get through this, he knew it. He felt sure in his heart that one day, he would become somebody great, it was the path he walked on. It was his ninja way.

But for now, he would have to surrender with his tail in his legs, he would have to accept the situation he was in because there was nothing he could do about it. Having no home to go to, nor a friend in sight, he would just have to accept reality, and if that meant begging from the man who had killed Rassuel, so be it. I'll get my revenge someday, he told himself. But he wasn't sure if he would be able to.

"What the hell do you expect me to do about it?" said the commander, stone faced, a mocking smile curling the thin corners of his lips. Naruto saw the Commander's chin hair with great detail, all blackish gray over brown skin.

"I need a home," said Naruto. "Rassuel was my adopted father."

"Huh? What the hell...?"

Naruto wondered if he had made a mistake but he had no choice. He would have to continue with his charade. Perhaps he could put the Commander on a guilt trip.

"I have no home," repeated Naruto. "Now I'm your repsonsibility."

The Commander spat in front of Naruto's feet. "The only home I can give you is the prison where the Water bastards are."

Naruto suddenly sensed an opportunity and knew he would have to act fast to take it. His old goal of breaking the Water people out budded and grew deep within him, a plant seed turning into a powerful hungry oak. He sensed opportunity to achieve his nameless goals, and he decided to act upon it. "Fine," said Naruto. "I want to leave when I'm eighteen though."

The Commander started chuckling and behind him the gaurds, whose faces were covered in shadows, and whose uniforms were stained and dirty from lack of personal hygiene, neglect and excessive drinking laughed along with their Commander. "Whatever makes you happy, kid," the Commander said, and kept on chuckling to himself. "This is the strangest day of my life!" he said to himself with roaring laughter.

Naruto was escorted by two young guards through an iron fence and through an underground tunnel. They walked in darkness for what felt like fifteen minutes before they levelled out and entered an open field. The gaurd turned around and walked away but not before closing the tunnel portal with the stick he carried. Naruto assumed it had special properties to be able to lock and unlock invisible walls and doorways. He noted this with vigor because he didn't know if it might be useful later on or not. He was trying to break out of here after all, but with the prisoners. This would be an inside job. Naruto considered it as his first mission.

He looked around and all he saw were green fields that stretched forever. It felt peaceful here, not too hot, not too cold, damp and humid breezes fluttered through his long blonde hair as he decidedly walked a cobblestone path that spiralled outward. He walked and walked, motivated enough to complete the spirall path though he could have just cut diagonally. The middle point of the spiral path was the tunnel, and if looked upon from a bird's eye view it would have seemed like one of those hypnotist circle things that people liked so much at fairs and such. Naruto paid special attention to what he was walking on: there appeared to be diagrams and hyrogliphs on the cobblestones, black ink laced over shiny green stones. Naruto could not read the gliphs, but an innate feeling within him told him snippets of the general message -the gist- of the meaning. Peace. One word. That was all it meant. Peace, serentiy, detachment from the world, acceptance, calmness, tranquility. These were the pillars of the water people. They were not warriors like the ignorant Ice people considered them to be. They were hippies and peace lovers, which must have been why they had lost the war. Yet here, they lived a comfortable life, though Naruto hadn't yet seen one of them so far. He simply focused on walking the spiralling path that looped outwards toward God knew where, in some kind of pocket universe that made up the Prison and the fortress. Naruto was lost in a zen like state, and he forgot everything, forgot the world, forgot his troubles and tension and unease as he walked to the beat of peace and serenity. Music drifted to his ears, drum beats, the sound of a small waterfall, soft guitar sounds, surging in and out, a playful tinkering laugh. He was unconscious to it all as he walked the spiralling path until he ended up at the absolute end, the broken part of the continous path where the spiral had stopped. He looked up and knew in his heart that the path was a test, and he had passed it.

He didn't know how he had this feeling - no, this epiphany one could call it except that it just came to him, from where he could not say. This epiphany came in the form of a vision of the guards trying in frustration to get across the spiral path by cutting diagonally and not following the path to the end, and how they just walked for days and days in an eternally endless path, trying to cut through the circle yet going in their own circle just the same. The guards hadn't passed the test. They could not find any sign of the water people so they were frustrated and angry because the Water people had won over them in this pocket dimension. They had absolute control.

As the scene before him ballooned outward he realized that these happy people, dressed in colorful silks had no need of being rescued. They were happy and content in their own little world. Naruto gulped, and felt a dread and horror come over him. He could barely breathe as tears welled up within the whites of his eyes and started falling, clearing a path across his sandy face. He was overwhelmed with sadness and grief, knowing he could stay here and be accepted by these people, live out his entire life in luxury and pure bliss, never having to return to reality ever again. He could live forever in this pocket dimension, he wouldn't age at all, he wouldn't feel sickness nor pain. Pure bliss. Pure torture. Rassuel's face drifted upward like smoke. He had to have his vengence for Rassuel's sake. Yet, so calm he was here, so at peace. A breeze that seemed to come from his heart swept through the blades of grass and kissed him on his cheeks, wiping the tears away like a caring mother.

He saw the women and the men, all in their youthful days dance to the music, so the expressions of pure joy and happiness on their faces, and regretfully teared his gaze from them because he had his own mission that he could not give up on. For Rassuel's sake.

But he had to get all he could from this meeting and though he wouldn't mind staying here yet... he felt restlessness rise like a tidel, from his belly to his neck it lifted him up with misery and energy. Learn, a voice commanded to him, it might have been the voice of God, it might have been the voice of satan, or perhaps even the Kyuubi. But it was a great power, and though Naruto didn't know where it came from he was compelled to follow it. The voice had such great power and force, it was greater than anything Naruto had ever seen, including the Kyuubi. It was more powerful than God, more powerful than any antichrist or satanic being or devil or any force in the vast universe. It was more powerful than the universe itself.

It was himself.

Naruto Uzumaki's heart turned to ice that day as a tribute to Rassuel, an ice of mercilessness and death defying courage, almost verging toward being suicidal. As he walked, he was covered in a sheen of dark blue energy that revolved across him, and his eyes blazed with hidden power. It was like he was covered with the Kyuubi's energy, but this was different. This felt better. His heart slowed down, he felt calm, composed and silent, almost like a God. He walked purposefully toward the Water people, an entire clan of them gathered around the musicians, some painting, some playing with water that seemed to come from a winding stream around them, some enjoying nature, sitting in meditative silence.

Yet as Naruto approached, every one of them felt his presence register in their very core, a sea of pure power and force of will that forced them to open their eyes and shoot their necks toward him, that forced them to rise up. The music stopped. The paint dropped, the playing grinded to a halt as Naruto walked. Each step felt like an earthquake that registered only on their spirit. Their eyes lowered in respect as they sensed the powerful being that was Naruto in all his anger and pain that this pocket dimension could not cure. They all felt the thirst of vengence that Naruto carried within his heart and the will to carry it through no matter what the cost, no matter the price, the pain, the hard work, the sweat, the tears, the blood. It would be done for Vengeance.

"You will teach me." Naruto's words echoed throughout the dimension, drawing the entire population of Water prisoners toward him like moths to flame. They came from all directions, each one of them dropping their activities and answering the call of the spirit, Naruto's spirit.

They came because they had no choice but to come, a force beyond anything in the universe compelled them to come. The force of a human spirit that was broken and remade with pure energy and power.

"In return," said Naruto, though he spoke quietly his words rang through their ears, making them deaf with the energy Naruto radiated. "I will break you out."

----

The dragon egg hatched that night, breaking apart as it lay warm and comfy within Alex Wong's billowy robes. It poked its way out of the soft cloth, and its snorting fire woke Alex up. Alex in turn woke Princess Nomi up and they watched in rapt fascination as the dragon, a green thing that had a long snake like body and small wings, and golden hypnotising eyes move its way toward the bag with the food. The dragon unleashed a pillar of flame, burning the black bag, leaving nothing but the meat that Alex had caught earlier in the day. The mythical creature ate slow and steady, devouvering twenty pounds of pure flesh in one sitting while Alex and Nomi observed, unable to bring themselves to say anything. Nothing needed to be said in teh presence of the dragon, everything seemed right with the world. They were a family the three of them. Alex the father, Nomi the mother, and the dragon the child. The dragon was the connecting link, the one that made up the chain, the one that held the two of them in an unbreakable magical spell, knitting the three of them close in a horrible yet amazingly realistic immitation of a family. Alex and Nomi both sensed this, but were unable to do anything thanks to the dragon's power over them. Nomi lost all desire to go back to the Ice Kingdom, as did Alex for his goal of becoming a musician. The dragon was the only thing they cared about now.

'WEEE MUST GO TO A TROPICAL ISLAND!" screamed the dragon mentally through their mysterious mind link. They winced and nodded, and started walking toward the sea, a distance of 1400 miles. They would walk, the dragon would grow and become stronger, and after the twenty day journey was over, they would fly.

----

The Water people vanished like puffs of smoke one by one until only a girl of seven stayed, staring at Naruto with huge golden eyes, black hair long and sleek and flowing in the wind. She stepped forward with a gaze of strength and Naruto saw at once that she was not afraid; she longed for adventure that this place could not give, she had a great soul, and possessed vast quantities of courage and will power. "What's your name?" demanded the girl, voice high and screeching.

"Uzumaki Naruto," said the Demon Container. "You are called?"

"Eva," she said. "Call me Eva."

"You will teach me?"

"What do you want to learn?" asked Eva.

"Everything you have to offer," said Naruto. "Time stops in this dimension place right? I can tell because of your ages, there's not a single aged man or woman amongst you."

"Correct," said Eva, offering a smile that seemed more of a grimace. "I'm sixty years old, if you count it in Earth time."

"Sixty! You barely look six."

"I know, its annoying," she said. "Lets get a deal down though, Uzumaki. I'll teach you whatever you want to learn and in return you will break me out."

"Yes."

"How?"

Naruto had no idea how, "I'll figure it out. Now teach."

"Hmm... I guess I have all the time in the world, so I won't waste anything by teaching you. But what if you can't break us out."

"I don't know."

"Then you owe me."

"Fine, now show me what kind of water magic you can do."

She smirked, "So that's what you want to learn," she chuckled. "Interesting. Watch this." She tightened her palm into a fist and swung at Naruto, who didn't even flinch. The girl was sixty feet away after all. But suddenly a jet of water rushed out through her fist and hit Naruto right in the collar bone. He was flung back. Getting up, he rubbed his sore shoulder. But he had a bright grin on his face.

"Amazing! Teach me!" demanded Naruto.

"First, you need to develop concentration."

"Like... meditation?"

"Yes," said Eva. "Don't worry, you have all the time in the world to mold your mind in a tool of complete focus and concentration."

"I just sit and concentrate on my breath right?"

"Of course, its the easiest way after all," said Eva. "Go on, do it."

"What will you be doing?"

"What I always do, invent new water techniques."

"So you know more huh?" asked Naruto eagerly.

"Thousands," replied Eva. "Hundreds and thousands, not all of them useful of course, but some of them are pretty good."

"Thanks," said Naruto, "I will break you out no matter what!"

"I doubt you can, I've been trying for a long time myself."

"Hmm... but you see... I'm Naruto!"

"And that's great because...?"

"I can do anything," said Naruto with a cheeky grin, holding up two fingers in a peace sign.

Eva sighed, and ruffled the pink dress she was wearing. "Whatever. Just meditate okay."

"'Kay," said Naruto. He sat down, closed his eyes and concentrated. In. Out. Pause. In. Out. Pause. Over and over. Meditate.

----

Tyron and Wenton Uchiha journeyed through the sand like a knife, killing everything that stood in their path. "How long till we reach the fortress?" asked Tyron.

"According to my mental scape, three days."

Tyron growled, "That's not good enough Wenton."

"Unless we have a jet plane, its the best we can do," said Wenton, equally angry.

Then they saw a dark shadowy figure approach them from the horizon where the sky touched the sand. "Who the hell is that?" Tyron asked.

"Dunno, lets go find out."

"Okay," said Tyron and they walked to meet up with this figure coming from East. It was Narr, but they didn't know that, didn't even know his name. If they knew his name, Narr would be a dead man.

"Uchiha!" growled Narr, "You fucking bastards, what are you doing here?"

"Who the hell are you?" asked Wenton, raising his eyebrows in challenge.

"Your enemy," said Narr and attacked.

----

AN: Please Review!

----


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Dreams

Naruto trained hard under Eva and together the two of them learned... from each other. Naruto learned water techniques and Eva finally got a chance to get to know the outside world. Naruto divulged everything, all his secrets and his past history to Eva. It was surprisingly relieving while also being very uncomfortable at the same time. Then as they learned, they decided it was time to break out. Both of them were getting impatient, and Eva decided she could teach Naruto just as well in the real world as in the pocket dimension. Throughout their days of training in the pocket dimension, the Water people never approached them once. Eva told Naruto that she was an outcast because of her strange behavior. It seemed the Water people were not as serene as they seemed, nor as accepting. Naruto had become somewhat of a taboo among them, not that he cared of course. His mind was fixated on one thing and one thing only, getting revenge for Rassuel. "I'm going to kill Armidallo the Commander," he told Eva many times. "Its going to be a great day!"

"So you say, but can you deal with it?" Eva replied back as always and struck him with a water technique. They sparred a lot, and both improved their fighting techniques as well as their combat skill. Eva hadn't had any real fighting experience before so Naruto provided a nice learning experience.

Then it was time to leave and the way they would do this would be an overload of chakra in the pocket dimension, effectively destroying it. "Your tribe won't be too happy about my idea, they don't seem to like me."

"Bunch of hypocrites and assholes, that's what they are," muttered Eva. "They pretend to be all morally high and mighty but in reality they are just as egoisiticall as the Ice Warriors."

"If you say so," said Naruto. "When do you want to do it though?"

"As soon as we start, you're going to go stir crazy with the Kyuubi's energy so I'll have to hold you down. But the water people probably won't let you destroy their homes. They'll fight back against you."

"I'm breaking them out though, they should be happy."

"Well people aren't like that. Sometimes you try to be good to people but they don't appreciate it, or want your help. It's a fact of life."

"You are wise in the ways of the world, Eva."

"Of course," she said, smirking, "I am not only young and beatufiul, but I have wisdom."

"Which comes from age."

"But I haven't aged a bit," she said, chuckling gleefully.

Naruto couldn't help but grin as well. "True," he nodded, "True enough."

"Let's start right now." Eva said.

"What now? Are you crazy?" Naruto said, drawing back.

"Come on, what's the problem?"

"Well, we aren't prepared for one and-"

"Oh relax, it will be fine!"

"But I'm scared…"

Eva scoffed. "Of what?"

"You don't know what it's like with a demon inside of you." Naruto shuddered. "Horrible."

"Look, are you going to do this or not?"

"I am," said Naruto, "For Rassuel's sake I will not fail."

"Oh get over that old bastard already."

"DON'T MAKE FUN OF RASSUEL!" snapped Naruto, truly angry.

Eva sheered away, "Sorry," she muttered, flushed.

"Its okay, just… don't."

"I didn't mean to offend you," she said, going cold and formal, an attitude she took on like a dress whenever she was embarrassed.

"Its okay," Naruto repeated. "Stand back."

He drifted his thoughts toward his source of all hate and anger, the commander Armidallo and his saber, driving the blade into Rassuel's unprotected back. Betrayal and trecheary, Armidallo would pay, Naruto was sure of that.

The Kyuubi's power rose within him, exalting him with its exotic and mysterious energy, not to mention powerful and blood red. The aura of energy surrounded him and he could feel the Kyuubi wakening within him, he could feel her rising bloodlust, her greed, her envy, her hate, and it was his hate and greed and envy, his bloodlust. As if he had been tensed, he unloosened, tails formed, power, energy, destruction. Nine tails. One tail down. Now two. Triplets, three to four. Four tails. He couldn't go any further. Lost sight of his reality, consciousness. Wanted to attack.

A voice said, "NARUTO, HARDER! TRY HARDER! WE NEED MORE ENERGY!" He listened to the voice, obeyed it, and tried, something humungoes rose from within him. A tide, a wave, pure energy, pure lust, pure battle, warrior's cry. He shouted. Screamed. "Rassuel!" He shouted. The voice faded away. All voices. He went deaf. He went blind, all he could see was a film of dark red, red so dark it looked like black. But it was red. Blood tinted darkness from an evil abyss of hate and loneliness. This was Kyuubi. Five tails. Six tails now. He was Kyuubi. Seven tails. He was the Kyuubi no Kitsune. Eight tails! He didn't know what he was, a being of pure power, no identity, nothing except hate. He wanted to destroy everything. Eight tails!

Then they attacked. From where they come he did not know in his current state but thousands of them came, all of them competent water warriors, they came to put out the fire around him and they worked in tandem, shooting streams of cold jet water at him, drowning him in their magic, in their peace, in their love and zest for life. All opposites of the Kyuubi. They knew how to fight him, knew how to beat the Kyuubi – think loving thoughts, thoughts that the Kyuubi could not stand. Project love toward the demon and the demon would wither and die away. Love. Pain. Love. It hurt!

Water everywhere, he was drowning in an ocean. The waves crashed against fiery skin, the water was cold, drowning out the heat that came from the demon. Then darkness.

The ninth tail grew and the Kyuubi was reborn, totally in control. There was no Naruto anymore, there was no boy in this body of energy. There was only the destroyer, the Kyuubi no Kitsune, only the beast with the nine tails, the demon that existed to kill, maim, destroy everything in its path. A rampaging machine. Its purpose: destroy. It destroyed everything.

Huge explosion.

Pocket Dimension gone! Cries of agony, cries of sorrow, cries of loss from the water people. A shriek of triumph from Eva, hair blazing black against two white suns. Sand everywhere. Brown, shiny, glossy. Around him, gaurds. Futile attacks. The Kyuubi fought back, shooting blasts of its energy at them. Drops in the ocean. They died, exploded. Water people ran in all directions, scattered away. Only Eva stood, proof that she was loyal to Naruto.

"Its time for you to come back now," Eva whispered softly but Naruto heard, Naruto the boy deep within, lost in the abyss of the Kyuubi, heard. "Naruto, come back to me!" she cried, tears falling down her face. To her, he was lost in the murderous rage of the Kyuubi. Regret flooded through her. Washed her down, made her powerless, yet the Kyuubi for all her power was unable to attack this little girl so full of regret and sorrow. How could it, a creature of hate, destroy its very opposite, love. Love and Hate were dualities, two parts of a whole. Destroying her would be akin to destroying herself. Yet the Kyuubi wanted to live and at the same time, destroy. Paradox.

What to do? Nothing, no option but surrender to the boy, accept a life of seclusion in a prison made by a man just as full of love as the girl in front of her. Hate. Everywhere. Hate. Love. Destroy. She couldn't. Naruto's will held her back from that, only that. She turned to the iron fortress prison. Unleashed her anger, frustration. Destroy it. Now what? Turn. Where to go? Ocean. Find a new home. Terrorize it. Go. Get away from the girl!

The girl was hurting her in ways she could not understand, digging deep through her heart, to her source of power with her love. Get away! Her spirit cried, get away! But she couldn't. Frozen in spot. By what? Not the girl, she was weak. By who? Only one person had power over her. Naruto.

No! I will not surrender! She thought. I have finally attained freedom, I cannot lose this chance, this opportunity.

She was destruction itself. She was destroying Naruto's body. If he died, she died. She was in a dilemma, should she run, Naruto's body would die soon. She could not stay in this weak pathetic little body. She needed true freedom. To do that she would have to go back to complete prisonery, take the seclusion and solitude and work from inward to destroy the very seals that held her back. Only then her path to true freedom lay open. Until that, she was useless. Helpless. Attached to the boy. She sighed, and receeded, retreat. Hateful. Shameful. She went back into her prison, tails between legs, meek, obedient like some animal. She hated the world, but she hated herself more.

---

Narr glared hatefully at the two Uchihas in front of him. "I dislike you people greatly, do you know why?"

"Why is that?" a smirk touching the corners of Wenton's lips, lighting his eyes with malice and evil. "Because you are too weak?"

"No, I am strong, strong enough to take both of you on." Said Narr.

"Is that so?" Tyron took a step forward. Cocky, confident, overconfident? No, never faced great opposition. All disintegrated to the dreaded Uchiha gaze. Deadlier than Medusa's stone making eyesight. No competition. Life of luxury. Narr was different, rough, uncouth, lots of struggle.

"Yes, I know your weakness."

Wenton spat at Narr's feet as they circled each other. "We have none."

"Yes you do, you can't fight a blind man." Said Narr. "Blind men have no need of eyes."

"No blind man can defeat us," said Wenton. "Besides, you aren't even blind!"

"But I can be," said narr, taking out a blindfold from his black trenchcoat. He tied it on. "Ready for destruction?"

Wenton and Tyron nervously took a step back, activating their sharingaan. "Who are you?"

"Your worst enemy, you see, I know what you are after. The prophecy child. You won't get him."

"Prophecy…?"

"On my island a prophecy was made about a boy who would come to this world from the past, from the ways of old, he would learn, he would become a great champion, and he would die. An old prophecy. That is the boy, I am sure of it."

"Village hocus pokus, nothing more," sneered Wenton. "Are you ready to die?"

"Have you ever heard of the Blind Crane Dance?"

"What's that?" asked Tyron, "Your pathetic little village dance?"

"Yes actually, a fighting style developed in my village to fight in the dark. You see, in our island the leafy canopy covers the land under shadows, and there is not much light. It is imperative to fight in the dark, and this dance helps us do so."

"A dance… will not defeat us." Wenton said, nervously taking a step back.

"You sure?" asked Narr, grinning softly. "Here I come!" He charged, and then disappeared in a puff of sand. Reappeared behind Wenton, where did he come from? Dissapeared without striking, like a ghost. Sand rose in the sky, covering the two suns. Sharingaan level made lower by lack of light. Attack! Kick, scream, knife thrust.

Laughter. Wenton. Dead. Narr. Alive. Victory.

Tyron, fear, anger, wonder. "How… how is it possible?"

"You Uchihas have grown too complacent. Now you will die."

"No please, spare me!"

"I don't think so."

Narr charged. Tyron grinned. "Got you!" He said and closed his right hand into a fist. Sand sprung up from all directions, trapping Narr in a tight ball. Crushing the bones. "You underestimate the Uchiha clan." Said Tyron. From under the sand rose a figure. It was Wenton. "Indeed."

"W-what?" Narr gasped. "How?"

"How? How an Uchiha cannot be defeated?" Wenton laughed. Sand in all directions. Sun beating down at them. Red eyes. "It is called, the Uchiha magic."

"Oh?" said Narr, a second Narr, walking from the desert.

"But… what? Who's this then?"

"A clone," Narr said offhandedly like it was nothing. The clone poofed in a puff of air. "Just like yours."

Eyes narrowed. Uchiha blood pumping, pulse racing, ready to face off against a serious competitor. Narr taking it easy, knowing the fight was in his hands now. "You didn't pay attention. The crane stands on one leg."

"What are you talking about?"

"I shall show you the dance, which I have not showed you yet." Narr stood on one leg, the other wrapped weirdly around his thigh. Hands clasped behind his head he whirled around, causing sand to fly. He also flew, levitated high into the air and spun and struck like a bee. Wenton dodged. But he could not move. Sand gripped his legs in a trap he had not noticed.

Trapped. No option but to die. "Tyron, kill him for me," said Wenton. Tyron nodded, sweat dripping from his temples. "You are stronger than me little brother, but you must believe in yourself."

"I will avenge you, Wenton," said Tyron, eyes whirling.

"Then kill me. Attain the mangekyou sharingan. Quickly!"

Narr swooshed down on them, would strike in 1.42 seconds according to Tyron's calculations. Took out a kunai. Plunged it into Wenton's left eye. Tyron cried. Wenton muttered, "Thank you." Death.

"I'll kill you!" he said to Narr as the opponent struck the dead Wenton Uchiha in the chest, ripping through his heart in showers of blood and guts.

Tyron's eyes rolled back, revealing whites. Then pupils came back in sight. Whirled around. Triangular. Red. Black. Scary.

Narr took a step back. "What is this?"

"How can you see?"

"I can sense the changes in your chakra level. I'm blindfolded so it still won't work on me!"

"I'll show you the true power of the sharingaan. The power that Itachi had full command of. I don't have one percent of his power, but that will be enough to defeat you."

"Itachi was strong. I respect his memory. You on the other hand disgrace it," said Narr. "Come on then."

"You bastard!" Tyron's war cry. He charged. Close combat. Punches, kicks, blocks, easy first grade stuff. Head but. Tyron saw his chance. Dodged, used teeth to pull out the blindfold. "Now see!" cried the changed Uchiha, eyes whirling like wheels.

"N-no," stammered Narr, immobile, frozen. The world changed around him in a red hue of death. They were like paper thin figures. Imaginary. Illusionary. Real. "For the next seventy two hours you will feel a thousand swords slicing into your heart." Tyron said in a cold crispy voice. "Second 1." Sword thrust. Intense burning. Pain.

"Aaah…" groaned Narr in pain, whimpering, white faced. A real illusion.

"This is second two." More pain.

Torture.

Narr lost his mind.

----

Awake now. Open eyes. "W-where am I?"

"Naruto you're awake!" Eva exclaimed, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, her mouth curved in a smile of pure relief. "Oh Naruto, I was so stupid, I should have never-"

"What happened Eva?" said Naruto, jumping up and looking around. He felt stickiness at the back of his throat like an insect biting him, and he noticed instantly he was back in the desert. Good, it worked, he thought: Now I can continue on with my plan of avenging Rassuel. Here Eva and I part ways.

"Naruto you destroyed everything!" said Eva, "But it wasn't you, you were the Kyuubi, oh Naruto, it was horrible. The feeling of evil that came out of you-" she burst into tears.

"It wasn't me, it was the Kyuubi," Naruto said calmly. He had accepted the fact that he was indeed the Kyuubi, and he had come to terms with it. That's why he was so reluctant to go on with the plan. Eva on the other hand, underestimating the Kyuubi was quite eager and for that… she knew the price now.

Naruto flexed his right hand into a fist, and opened it again. The feeling when he was possessed by the Kyuubi was like drowning… in a sea of hate. Words couldn't describe it. He felt tainted, destroyed, the Kyuubi's chakra had cut through his very soul, destroying his core. He knew for sure he would never use the Kyuubi's chakra again, he couldn't afford to. This had been the last time.

"Where are we? Where's the prison?"

"Its gone, Naruto, everything's gone," said Eva, sniffling her tears. "At least you got revenge for Rassuel."

Naruto froze inside. "Armidallo's dead?"

"Everyone's dead," said Eva, laughing neurotically, "Only a handful of my tribe are alive."

"Woah…" Naruto licked his dry lips. "I never meant…"

"Its okay Naruto, it was my fault. I shouldn't have-"

"What's gone is gone. Now lets get out of here."

"Where will we go?" asked Eva. "I mean… I don't have a home anymore and I am sure none of my tribe will accept me. They'll hate me forever, I'm sure."

"I don't know," said Naruto, "How long was I out?"

"Several hours."

"Water," he croaked out. "I feel exhausted."

"Of course," Eva summoned water from the ground, bathing Naruto in coolness, and holding a fistful of water, she helped Naruto drink some. "Thanks, I needed that," said Naruto.

"Its going to be dark soon." Eva said.

"I… too tired… I'm… sleep…" Naruto lay flat on the ground, rhythmically snoring, Eva didn't mind.

When they woke up, it was daylight, probably somewhere in the afternoon. Sand dunes stretched endlessly before them, and they packed what little they had and started their journey. "Where are we going?" asked Eva.

"I don't know, to the ocean I guess. Rassuel wanted to catch a ship and travel the world. Maybe I'll fulfill his dream."

"You still haven't told me what happened to your left hand."

Naruto glanced at the stump, and he remembered the bees and how he tried to use the Kyuubi's energy in an energy blast. He should have remembered his lesson, but here he was… well never again, he thought. Kyuubi, I'm never going to give you freedom again. He only hoped he had the willpower to keep this promise, for to break it would be to not only lose his honor but lose his self as well.

"I-I can't tell you that. It belongs to the dead."

"Rassuel?"

"He… he knew, and he will be the only one to know. That's one thing I'm not willing to share." Rassuel had saved him from the bees, had saved his life, this was a gift on Naruto's path. He would keep this a secret, honestly he had forgetting about the stump of a hand. No left hand. It was okay. He didn't need it. Your right is just as good, right? Right.

"So…" Eva sighed. "I don't mind, I mean… I respect the dead, sure…"

"Then let it go Eva."

"If you say so," said Eva, but Naruto could tell she was cross with him. "Come on then, lets start walking."

They walked.

A figure approached from the horizon, it was a tall man dressed in a black coat and wearing a black bandanna on his face. Long greasy hair covered his forehead. Only his eyes were shown. Even his hands were covered with black gloves. The eyes were red, creepy wheel like things.

"So you are Uzumaki Naruto…"

"Who wants to know?" demanded Eva.

"Shut up girl, run away to mommy will you?" The man said, sneering in contempt. "Naruto, fight me."

"Don't go there," said Naruto, "I don't know who you are but I'm not in a good mood. I don't want to hurt you."

The man laughed scornfully. "You hurt me? You should be more worried about yourself. No matter, I will attack and you will be forced to fight."

"It's two against one asshole." Eva growled.

"No Eva, this is my fight."

"What? Naruto…" Eva's eyes glittered with hurt.

"I want to test the training you've given me," said Naruto with a rueful grin. "Stand back."

"Eva, huh?" said the man in black, as if contemplating something.

"Brace yourself," said Naruto and charged at the man. He used all his strength in running toward the man, filling his right hand with purple water – blood energy. It would leave him feeling weak but if he could finish this in one attack it would be for the best. If not… well this was one of his best attacks, he didn't want to think about what would happen if his opponent was stronger than he estimated.

The man easily dodged and grabbed Naruto's right hand, flung him over his back Judo style. Naruto hit the sand with a loud 'oof'. "Naruto!" screamed Eva in concern.

"Stay back," said Naruto as he sprang to his feet. The man had dodged his attack! He was fast.

"I haven't even introduced myself," said the man. "I'm Tyron Uchiha, master of the mangekyou sharingaan!"

"I don't know what that means but it doesn't really matter. Just remember that you've brought your fate upon yourself."

"Oh you're going to kill me now? Then why are you cowering at my feet. Why aren't you brave enough to look me in the eyes as you fight me?"

Naruto looked. Big mistake. The world disappeared into a vortex type illusion. Red fog covered them, and out of the shadows came Rassuel, holding a curved silver knife. Tyron's laughter could be heard coming from everywhere. Naruto was tied, naked to a cross like Jesus Christ. Rassuel approached, said in harsh tones, "Naruto… you disappoint me. Its your fault I'm dead!"

"No! That's not true!"

"Its your fault! This is my vengeance." Rassuel stabbed Naruto in the gut and slit his stomach open. Blood and guts fell out, pooled on the black mirror like floor. Naruto gasped. Coughed out blood. Then, blackness, and he was right back where he was before, Rassuel coming out of the shadows holding the knife.

A repeat!

What kind of hell is this, thought Naruto in agony as he experienced this, sixty seconds in every minute, sixty minutes in every hour, for seventy two hours.

Then it was over and Naruto fell to the sandy floor, real blood gushing out of his mouth as he vomited on the hot sand. Tyron stood above, laughing.

"What did you do to him?!" Demanded Eva.

"You will die today, little girl!" Tyron said, and began a NAME ASSASSINATION.

----

Fire erupted from her spinal cord in a spear formation. Eva screamed her heart out as she felt razors poking into her body from all sides, points sharp and barbed. It drew blood. She screamed, and then she was silent, dead, fallen onto the sand. Naruto watched this in slow motion, his heart stopped, his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth. His jaws tightened, and he couldn't move them. Then he could, then everything loosened, and all his energy was gone. He was exhausted from everything, he didn't want to fight anymore. Eva's sudden death launched Naruto in a sea of apathy.

Then came anger. Like clockwork his face turned from emotionless relaxation to scrunched up concentration to pure hatred and rage. "I'm going to kill you," he said slowly, as if testing these words out for the first time like he was buying a car.

He turned around and went to his packs, paying no attention to Tyron. He pulled out a white towel and covered Eva's limp form with it. Then he watched his enemy carefully, measuring him up. He felt the water in his body, felt the water in his enemy's body, felt it rushing in underground rivers. He closed his eyes and became one with the world. In this zen like state, he opened his eyes again, and prepared for battle. His eyes were steel gray, a lighter shade of his original blue, his mouth curved into a harsh U that could not be taken for a smile under any circumstances. More like a grimace. Tyron laughed, his eyes the green color of trees as he deactivated his sharingaan.

He spat on the ground, "You're pathetic. No control over your own emotions. I'm sure you'll be easy to defeat."

"Is that so?"

Naruto grinned and formed a ball of white energy, as white as snow, in the palms of his hands. Two balls. Very destructive. He threw them at Tyron, who dodged with ease and contempt. They exploded, sending debris and showers of sand around. Then, lava erupted from the two craters in huge bursts, drowning Tyron in the heat.

"What the-" Tyron's last words before he was engulfed into the red lava. Naruto laughed. "Too easy," he said.

"Is that so?" Tyron laughed as well. "You're right, it is too easy. Ever heard of clones, brat?" Naruto's enemy rose from the lava unharmed, untouched.

He pulled out a pair of rectangular glasses from his coat pocket and put them on. "This is better," he said, "Now I can see clearly. The sharingaan ruins your eyes you know. Let's up this fight to the next level."

"Fine," said Naruto and took in a deep breath, releasing a jet of water that turned into ice almost at once. They flew at Tyron, who punched each blast aside like he was batting flies. He looked as if he were enjoying a nice cup of coffee right now.

"Hell, how do you do that?" Naruto muttered, thinking it was too low for Tyron to hear. He was wrong.

"How? I'm an Uchiha, I'm the best ever! And besides that, I have the mangekyou sharingaan. You won't imagine the growth in my power and strength." Grinning widely, Tyron started firing pencil thin knives at Naruto. They disappeared into a poof upon contact, but not before spearing the opponent. It came from the tips of his fingers, out of nowhere, and disappeared into that same dimension. Naruto hurriedly dodged.

"No, you don't realize my own power," Naruto said, though his voice was a bit strained. He took seven hits on his right arm, and the numbing poison ensured he couldn't use it again. Besides that, he didn't have any left hand anymore, so his fighting was a bit useless right now. Still, he had a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Is that so? Well, boss, why don't you show me your power," said Tyron. He removed his black leather jacket, letting it crumple on the sand.

Naruto opened his mouth, shooting more jets of water. This time they disappeared into steam almost at once. There was fog. "No more sharingaan for you!" Naruto yelled out, and started running.

Suddenly a shower of bricks hit Naruto in the face. He heard a mocking laugh coming from the fog, though it was so thick he couldn't see two inches into it.

A few bricks hit his head, and before he could do his final trick, turning the water fog into an alcoholic fog and lighting it on fire, he fell unconscious.

Tyron blew the fog away with a minor wind technique. Scoffing, he said, "How pathetic. This kid doesn't know how to fight at all." He picked Naruto up and began his journey to the Fire country.

He didn't remember much about the journey when he woke up on hard cement, with ten Uchiha assassins peering over him. But he did remember the scents: the scent of the sewage, the scent of cinnamon, the scent of the sand and the breeze that carried the smell of the sea. He remembered smelling the wood on the ship, he remembered smelling the tunnels as they passed through the labrynth underneath the Fire city. He remembered the smells, and through them he could recollect the long long trip. He knew suddenly where he was: Uchiha Compounds, Fire Country. These compounds stretched for miles and miles, had fields and fields, houses, castles, mansions, stores, markets. Those Uchiha who didn't take up the profession of assassination became workers in their city of Uchiha.

But here in this small cramped room with those ten assassins, all of them skinny and wrinkly and old and wearing black cloaks, looking down over him, he felt small… and scared.

What will they do to me, he wondered, because he didn't like the red look in their eyes. It bespoke of torture, grim and painful.

"W-who are you?" Naruto croaked out, suddenly realizing how thirsty he was. An aide offered him a glass of water, and he looked to the side, and caught himself on the verge of thanking her. He gulped and thought: I'm a prisoner here. These people killed Eva, and now they just might kill me.

"Are you Uzumaki Naruto?" said a commanding voice, the voice of a leader. The owner of this voice was lanky and had purple bags under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept in weeks.

"Who are you people?" Naruto repeated again but they ignored his question.

"Are you the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune?"

"Ye-" No, don't say a word, he cautioned himself.

"We are the Uchiha Council of advisors. We know who you are, it would be easier just to tell us."

Naruto glared. "I am Naruto, and I do have the Kyuubi inside me. You better let me go or else-"

The man started chuckling, loudly. "Why would we ever do such a thing?" He asked, eyes twirling madly. "No, you see, we have a better plan. We, the Uchiha Council, are going to brainwash you into becoming our pet warrior. How does that sound?"

"W-what? Never!" Naruto shouted. "I'll never serve you people. You killed her, you bastards will die."

The outburst surprised even him. Panting hard, he glared with all the hate within him.

"Take him away, to the white room." Said the leader.

Two of the council members roughly carried him out of the small cramped room, into a dark hallway that smelt of old socks, and down a white door. Inside the room, there were about twenty light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, which seemed a mile high. They gave off so much light that Naruto knew at once he wouldn't get any sleep here. So that's their plan, he thought to himself. They are going to starve me, deprive me of sleep, and…

And what? What's brainwashing? Naruto had a feeling he would find out soon enough. The two Uchihas went out and shut the door soundly behind them. Then a voice began from a speaker way up high on the ceiling: "YOU SERVE THE UCHIHA. YOU WORK FOR THE UCHIHA. YOU SERVE THE UCHIHA. YOU DO YOUR DUTY. SERVE THE UCHIHA. THE UCHIHA TAKE CARE OF YOU. FEED YOU. SERVE THE UCHIHA." Over and over like a loop track it went. Naruto shut his eyes, but underneath the eyelids, all he saw was yellow and white light. He tried to put an arm over his eyes as he huddled on the floor. The room started becoming colder and colder as the temperature decreased substantially. He huddled on the floor and shivered.

Over and over again.

He couldn't think, he wanted to scream but he didn't have any energy.

They kept him there, how long, he didn't know. But then food came, possibly three days later. His eyes were blank orbs of blue, he was completely passive and relaxed as a monotone voice inside his head uttered the words that brainwashed him. They gave him a slice of hard grain bread and a cup of water. Then they left him there for another two days. He had so little energy he could barely move. Couldn't think. Couldn't do much of anything. He floated between dream like states, sometimes, he slept with his eyes open. Tired. Hungry. Exhausted. Serve the Uchiha.

They kept up with this treatment for weeks on end, and finally let him out. They took him deep underground in the cold dungeons and left him there to brood in silence. His mind was focused on one thing: serving the Uchiha. Docile, loyal, obedient. Powerful. The perfect warrior. The council was pleased. Tyron also pleased. He got that promotion to top elite Uchiha Warrior. Naruto on the other hand was lost in an abyss of darkness and emptiness, with only one purpose to keep him company: serve the Uchiha.

He had nothing now, and he was in a shroud of darkness, covered in a veil of ignorance and apathy. He needed for nothing. They would give him a mission, he would complete it, and sit like that in a dark cell. He needed no sleep now, just sitting quietly and focusing on his breathing was enough. Always ready, always full of energy and vitality, always composed. He was loyal. Powerful.

Perfect Warrior.

Except for the raging Kyuubi. The seals around her seemed to grow stronger with this brainwashing. Perhaps it was because Naruto's fundamental concentration powers increased, making the Yondaime's seals more powerful and stronger. She was frustrated and angry. Naruto. Gone. In its place, something that held her back. He was a boulder, a rock. No emotions. Passive. Active. Yin and Yang. The prison cell he was kept was the Yin, and the missions the Yang. Perfect balance had been achieved.

So it came to pass that Naruto went out on his sixth mission and it changed his life.

He met Doctor Graw, who lived in Purple Heart City deep within the Fire Nation. His job was to assassinate him… and this job changed his life for the better… or maybe for the worse, he never quite could tell after.

They came to him as he was sitting in the dark, meditating one could call it. Though it was more than that. Less than that. He concentrated on nothing, but he did feel calm, like a block of ice. No emotion. No thoughts running across his mind. Just a big chunk of nothing. The man in the dark cloak, the leader of the Uchihas opened the cell door and walked in. He called himself Peter. Obviously a fake name, not that Naruto cared. He only wanted to _serve the Uchihas. _Their brainwashing was completely effective.

"Ace-" That's what they called him "-we have a job for you. You are to kill this man." Peter held out a photograph with a gloved hand that showed a slightly chubby man wearing thick lenses and having ginormous lips.

Naruto took the photograph and held it for a few seconds, feeling the smoothness of the picture. Then he examined the facial features and commited it to memory.

"His name is Graw, he's a doctor working in Purple Heart City. You are to find him, and eliminate him. No witnesses. No evidence. Wipe him off the face of the earth. Understood?"

Naruto slowly nodded. Then Peter reluctantly continued, "Graw is not his real name. We've been trying to kill him for years, but he's always proved to be too elusive. You on the other hand are just a child. Nobody would suspect you, so the rumor mill won't churn out advance warnings as they do when an Uchiha arrives in Purple Heart City."

"I will do my duty, Peter," said Naruto in a monotone voice. "Is this all?"

Peter nodded, and walked out. "See the weapons mistress for your equipment and transportation."

Perfectly normal, he saw her every time before he started a mission.

Peter had left the door open. Naruto walked out, down a few hallways and a looping double helix staircase, and entered a gymnasium filled with shelves stacked with weapons: swords, knives, guns.

The Weapons mistress was a beautiful blonde with a ponytail, wearing a pink sweatshirt with a soccer ball picture on it, as well as blue shorts. "Ace, back again?" she said, giving him a leery wink. "Come on, I know what you need for this job: a sniper rifle!"

"No," said Naruto. "Short range please. Two hand knives."

She pouted. "Nobody wants to use sniper rifles anymore."

"The personal shielding mechanism makes them ineffictive," Naruto said. A company called Shield Inc. developed personal shields to stop assassination attempts. So far, they worked well. The Uchihas could never assassinate Shield Inc. Employees. They were too well protected.

"Yeah but still, the rifles are just so goddamn cool!" exclaimed the Weapons mistress.

"You could be right, Yoni," said Naruto with dead eyes. Yoni the Weapons mistress could tell right away that Naruto didn't give two shits about the rifles. He only wanted what he needed to complete the job assigned to him. What a sad sort of situation the young child was in, put into the brainwashing room. Oh well, that was life for an Uchiha after all.

"I need transportation," Naruto said after acquiring weapons. "What will it be? Car or plane?"

"Plane," said Yoni, "The Purple Heart City is far away."

Naruto nodded. "On the heli-pad right?"

Yoni smiled softly, "Yes, you know where it is."

Naruto walked out without a word. He went to the roof of the building where the sunlight hit the metal gleam of an airplane. The pilot waved. He was dressed in all brown leather jerkin and had upon his forehead a pair of black goggles with thick lenses to protect his eyes from the wind. The plane was shaped like a ball, and had below it three leg stands to stabilize it on the rooftop of the Uchiha building. Above it there were three propellers working like a giant fan. They turned round and round almost lazily as the pilot urged Naruto into the two seater plane.

Naruto got in, and said to the pilot, "Did Peter tell you where to go?"

The pilot nodded, "Yeah, Purple Heart, right?"

Naruto said nothing, opting to put his seatbelt around his waist. He gazed at the clear skies, and almost remembered something, had a strange feeling of vertigo and déjà vu, as a mysterious ghost like voice said from the back of his mind… "Eva… Rassuel…"

Who are those people? I keep hearing their names, thought Naruto. He decided he would have to investigate them as soon as possible, preferably when he got to Purple Heart. The crowded city was the forefront of all technological innovations. The Fire Nation was filled with smart engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, and Naruto was eager to get his hands on a "computer" that had a vast information database within it. One could pop into the computer booths, of which there were as many as telephone booths, or so Yoni had told him, and he could type in what he wanted to learn in the search box (which was called google) and he would immediately receive the information he wanted. Although the brainwashing had some bad effects on Naruto's psychological development, permanently harming it as well as seriously damaging his innate humanity and ego, he still had not lost the playful childishness that made up Naruto.

Also the voices he constantly heard from the back of his mind, especially when he was dreaming made him feel strange. Made him remember something, flashes, ghost-memories. All very strange. No doubt he would find the answers he was looking for, find who he really was. At this point, Naruto had no name, no identity, except as Ace, the master assassin. Naruto could not even remember what had happened for most of his childhood. He just woke up this way. Very queer this was.

The ride to Purple Heart city took four hours, in which Naruto spent the time reading a fat paperback novel. Reading and writing were two activities he hadn't been proficient in before. But the training the Uchihas gave him included these two basic literary skills. So he read. Currently he was reading a book called: Don Quixote. It was about a modern man reading too much. His brain dries up, and he thinks he is a ninja-errant.

That made him think of something, a flash of a small village hidden beneath the orange glow of a sunset. Kono-something. He had forgotten. He felt as if a part of him had died. He focused on his reading, and was at the part where Sancho, the fat genin who accompanied Don Quixote, was tossed up and down on a blanket in front of an inn by a couple of hooligans.

What a strange book.

"We're here, Ace," said the pilot. "You have everything you need?"

Naruto carried with him a black dufflebag, which he patted solidly with his left hand… his prosthetic hand, made out of rubber. Fake, but effective. Worked just like his right hand, in fact, his left hand was even stronger as it was replaceable. "Yup, thanks Vaughn, you've been a good pilot."

"No problem, buddy," said Vaughn the pilot.

"Call me Ace," said Naruto, and took out a pair of sunglasses. He climbed out of the plane and walked away without a second look.

Who knew what life would bring him now. Going as Ace, he didn't know who he was, his history, his lineage, but he had a burning curiosity within him to find out. As he walked the cramped streets of Purple Heart City, where he would make a name for himself along with Dr. Graw, where he would declare the Uchihas as his enemy, and break free of their mind control, where he would grow up into a strong and well controlled teenager, he looked at the two dual suns in the sky through the black tinted lenses of the sunglasses.

"Rassuel… Eva… who are you people?" Naruto asked of himself. For that he had no answer.

Konoha… he had forgotten his village and his dream of become the Hokage, would he ever remember?

----

Purple Heart City teemed with life as beggars begged in shabby clothes and owners of fruit stalls shouted out to the populace about their wares and the great bargains one would find at their kiosk, as a cart filled with apples wheeled through the paved yet dirty roads of Purple Heart, as three monks in brown robes with bald heads walked through the city square discussing their latest theories about life, as the scents of the city assaulted his olfactory organ – sewer smells, rotten fruit, smoked fish, bread being baked, fresh cut grass, but the stench of sulfur that smoked out of the chimneys overcast these other olfactory scents, making Naruto – or Ace as he will be called from now on – wrinkle his nose in distaste.

He looked around the bustling city, just getting a feel for it. He had been all over the Fire Empire in his career as a master assassin, but Purple Heart was unlike any other, both in terms of the disgusting smell, as well as the population levels. Ace had never seen so many people in one place before. Thousands of them going about their business as the two suns shined above them. It filled Naruto with a strange feeling of nostalgia though he did not know where that came from. It reminded him of the color orange, and of cobblestone streets, narrow and long-winded and circular, of monuments dedicated to Ho…

Ace froze. He almost had it for a second but then he had lost it. Just a faint glimmer of light in a well of darkness. This memory – a lost memory, a nostalgic memory, a forgotten memory – came from somewhere – where he did not know – but it came and then it went away, leaving Ace with nothing but confusion and sadness and melancholy.

As Ace walked through Purple Heart City, he observed the architecture, with its long white columns and its triangular roofs, as well as the marble shingles placed on it, instead of the usual woody type in the Uchiha compound, as well as everywhere else in Fire Country. Purple Heart City was unique, but it was also… normal… it felt like home to Ace, as homely a feeling as he had ever felt before. Certainly he had never felt truly at home in the dark and damp, not to mention small, cell the Uchihas kept him in. The cell he had lived in for all his remembered life smelt like gravel and cement and metal and the salty smell of blood. Here, the smells reminded him of life, filled him with a joy and bliss and a wave of good feeling he had never experienced before. Peace and serenity crashed down on him as he transversed the Purple Heart City in a random fashion.

He had money in his pocket, he always had money. The Uchiha clan was rich, liked to spend, liked to invest. Especially on him. They lavished him with money, urged him to spend as much as required. For them, it was pennies. They had entire fortunes stored up in cold vaults deep beneath the ground, supposedly guarded by fire breathing dragons. Ace didn't believe such tales, mainly because he had never seen the dragons. Only believe what you see, a motto he stuck by. It saved him from the much hated and feared _confusion _that he seemed to be surrounded in. No, not merely surrounded, more like drowned in.

First, there's always a first in the assassination business, he would need to observe the city in all its glory, today, tomorrow, the day after, just observe, take long walks, look at maps, get to know a few people. He would have to fit in. That was always the hard part with him, because he felt uncomfortable among these tall and slender people. He was short. A bit fat, thanks to the meats the Uchiha fed him. But he was strong as well. He would do his mission, he knew, but he did not like the first part.

The second part was to find the target, the much-respected Dr. Graw, find him, stalk him. Get to know his whereabouts but at no cost or condition must he show himself. That would only cause suspicion and make his job harder.

Third was to set up a plan, how was he going to kill Dr. Graw? Stuff like that, the devil's in the details. Assassination is all about the details. What's the getaway plan? What happens if the first attempt doesn't work? What weapons to use? What time to attack? Simple details either make or break a successful assassination.

And the fourth part was the easiest, as well as being the one Ace enjoyed the most: to actually do it. To actually pull the trigger and kill somebody in cold blood. To stab them in their gut, make their organs fall out to the smooth floor, to make them gush out with blood, to hear their screams and cries of pain. Yes, Ace enjoyed this. It made his heart race. Killing was the only thing that made his heart race, that filled him with emotion, that made him _alive._

He was dead to the world. But killing; in death he found life, in life he sought death. Pure nonsense, pure wisdom.

Observe. Breathe. Calm. Peace. Easy. Relaxed. Healthy. Positive.

These were affirmations made to calm him down. He had found it – read it to be exact – in a self-improvement book, and he stuck by it because it helped him. Filled him with grace and lightness, making it easier to execute his plan.

Also, being relaxed really helped with fitting in, Ace had found. So he repeated his affirmations: simple words with layers of sub textual meaning, and he felt calm, and serene inside. Relaxed. Easy.

It helped him.

He smiled at the beggar and tossed him a quarter.

---

He found Doctor Graw on Tuesday morning while he was buying a bag of pears for his lunch. He always ate fruits and vegetables, pure milk, and an assortment of healthy foods. On his way through the market, pausing at just the right intervals to catch sight of everything around him, he saw a strange figure dressed all in black walking down the road. The figure was undoubtedly Doctor Graw. He held an expensive reddish brown cane, which he tapped on the ground as he walked along in perfect rhythm. Not only that, but judging by the two diamond rings on his left hand, as well as the ruby red ring on his right, he was undoubtedly rich. His clothes were made of the finest cloth – silk mined from the bellies of dragon-worms. Smooth, black, all natural, it had enhancing effects on a person's energy and vigor, supposedly making one younger and more beautiful. This told Ace a lot about what kind of a person Doctor Graw was, for worm-silk was very expensive and only those rich folk that were completely obsessed with life and death bought them.

Ace picked up a pear from his basket, and rubbing it on the orange cloth of his tee shirt, he bit into it, letting juice dribble from his mouth and down his chin. He watched Graw with hawk eyes as the good doctor made his way down the market, heading toward the rich district. The market place was evenly divided between the rich and the poor section. Ace, though he had money, shopped in the poor section. Within the depths of his cold black heart, he had a small fire, a little burning ember of conscience that made him feel unnaturally sorry for the skinny, wide eyed children running through the streets in zig zags, kicking a soft red ball around, as well as the shopkeepers selling their fruits and wares, and the black skinned women in dirty shawls selling the fish their fishermen husbands had caught the night before. Ace scowled as Graw kicked a boy running in his way. The boy gasped as he fell through the air, landing on hard ground. Blood oozing out of his mouth where the good doctor had kicked him. The boy spat out broken teeth and without another word, not a cry of pain, not even a glance of hate, he ran away. It broke Ace's heart to see this sight, not only because he wasn't that much older than the injured boy, but also because of the glimmer of conscience. Every day it seemed to grow, just like the flashes – the ghost memories that came and went seemed to increase in number. This was the brainwashing wearing off, though Ace did not know that. The brainwashing would never completely wear off of course – that was asking for the impossible, but Ace would revert back to a shadow of his old self. The cheerful, innocent Naruto. Within Ace there were two personalities: Innocence and Pure Evil.

Ace glared hatefully at Graw as the doctor passed on without a second glance, tapping his cane on the ground. Everybody gave him way. Graw smirked, his pencil thin lips curling at the corners, giving his angular face a shadowed and devilish look.

Ace followed Graw at a distance through the rich district, abandoning his pears to a skinny young lad of sixteen walking through the streets. Ace simply thrust the basket into his hands and walked off without a word, keeping his eyes solely on the red black collar of Graw's trench coat. The rich district was surrounded by a perimeter of white walls, of which there were no guards to oversee them. None was required for the poor people did not venture into the rich district where the nobility and royalty lived – they knew their place, knew what would happen if they were caught by the BKL police that oversaw Purple Heart City. Ace had not encountered the BKL police yet, but he had seen a few of them patrolling through the area on motorcycles, looping through the alleys and streets, expressing their authority to the poor and defenseless in cruel ways.

In the heart of the rich district, indeed the very heart of Purple City, there was a castle, painted in purple, where Prince Andre lived in luxury and ease, completely secluded from the problems of the people by his ministers and advisors, for Ace had heard the rumor mill about Prince Andre – a young bachelor, kind and compassionate, yet naïve. On the first Saturdays of every month, the Prince toured his city, and on the week before his tour the BKL came in armies, clearing the outer fringes of the city of all the unfortunates, the beggars and filth, making it a haven for all things of quality.

Ace saw Graw look through the windows of a shop that had on the forefront the sign:_Objectif de la Magick._ Graw walked into the shop. Ace waited outside at a distance, keeping his eyes moving to sense any approaching danger. He was wary of the BKL and with good reason too. Who knew what they would do! Police who policed and were not policed turned out to not to be good police. The streets were incomparable to the streets of the poor district. Here everything was purposely clean and shining, as if to snub their poor neighbors. Signs were painted in detailed and – though Ace did not like the district he had to admit…- beautiful calligraphy. Ace wondered what Graw was after, because the doctor came back with a small brown paper back the size of Ace's foot. There was something in the bag, but Ace didn't know what.

Now he was in a qaundry. He had two options that he could see, continue following Graw, whom he recognized from the picture the Uchihas had given him, or on the other hand find out what was in the paper bag. Ace turned to the latter option, merely to satisfy his curiosity. He had a lot of time. The Uchiha head of the clan – Peter, recognized that this mission would take time and careful planning, and so had given him much leeway. His deadline was the end of the month. Thirty days. That was about twenty nine days more than he usually had. All was well. Ace walked into the shop, smelling urine and sulfur, and looked around.

The interior of the shop was dark, spidery, damp, wet and coldly humid. The atmosphere made Ace shiver, for everything in the shop was a sort of sick gothic style: statues of ugly gargoyles beared down on him from the sides of the ceilings. Hands – rubber, jelly, realistic – hung from white threads from the dome shaped ceiling, as three eyes – sharp, black, cunning – looked at him with contempt.

A voice said from the darkness, "What are you here after, boy?"

Ace replied with good reason and patience: "I want to know what was in the paper bag of your previous customer."

"Oh? I am not in the habit of telling strangers what my clients bought from me," said the man as he stepped out of the shadows. He was ugly: large round nose, fat red lips and a saggy moustache, as well as a protruding pot-belly under thick red furs. Over his bald head he wore a hood covering much of his forehead.

"I'll pay for it," said Ace, "How much?"

The man licked his lips greedily, "How much do you have?"

Ace shrugged and pulled out a giant wad of bills from the folds of his pockets. "This much… about three thousand reels."

The man grabbed it with chubby fingers and made it disappear. "He bought a philosopher's stone. Now get outta here."

"A what?"

"A philosopher's stone," said the man. "It turns lead into gold, and if you let it soak in a vial of gin, water, and rosemary, you'll have the exiler of life."

"Does it actually work?"

"Indeed it does!" exclaimed the man. "Though it's a devil to make one."

"How much did your client pay for it?"

The man chuckled: "Four hundred thousand reels! It's the best deal I ever made in my life."

"Four hundred thousand?" exclaimed Ace. "Impossible. Nobody has that much. Not even the Prince."

"But Doctor Graw has," said the man, "I'm sure he's got more, or my name isn't Leothar."

"Leothar, wouldn't Graw just get his money back by selling gold?"

The man shook his head, "What are you, daft? The stone makes a different kind of gold – a reddish blackish sort of gold, though it looks pretty, its worthless."

"Worthless, why?"

"Because its about as common as the gravel on the ground. There are about three people in the entire world who have a philosopher's stone. Two of them are Uchihas. They filled the market with this fake gold, no doubt to make it worthless."

"But why? I don't understand…"

"The Uchihas are the prime producers and merchants of real gold, they don't want competition, especially from a philosopher's stone, so for them, it was a good plan. Expensive, but good."

"I see," said Ace. "Tell me, where is Graw going?"

"Probably to his practice I suppose. He is the best surgeon and medical practitioner in the entire city. Has an office as big as a villa."

"Thanks," said Ace. He walked out, leaving Leothar the merchant with his eyes narrowed suspiciously, clutching Ace's bribe.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven: Reality**

_Observe. _

Ace watched from the window of the one room hotel he stayed in. Graw always came down the same street to his practice at ten a.m, swinging that god-awful cane around, kicking everybody in his path. Soon Ace started to hate Graw, hate him with a passion and a murderous lust such as he had never felt ever before. In his previous assassination missions he always felt coldness for the victim, a sort of icy neutrality. _This is my job; I don't care about you, _his eyes said as he stabbed the victim, or pulled the trigger, or blasted the target off of the planet. But with Graw and his pale white face and his menacing eyes, Ace couldn't find neutrality. No, all he could find for Graw was a hot ball of hate growing within his abdomen. Soon he would unleash that hate and kill Graw and that would be the most satisfying thing would ever do in his life. So it seemed to him at the time.

Ace followed Graw at a distance, and noted where Graw made stops. Which shops. What schedules he followed. Everything became a simple pattern to him. He started to collect stories about Graw from the men and women on the streets. A gold reel went a long way to unleashing people's tongues. They didn't mind, because they hated Doctor Graw even more than he did. Ace heard horror stories from the people about how Graw wouldn't treat any of them no matter how big of an emergency it was. Graw's excuse? "Get that filth out of my office!"

And this god forsaken city let him get away with such treatment. That pissed Ace off. He felt a sort of bond between the mistreated folk and himself, as if he too at one point had been mistreated, hated, reviled by society. So he knew the sort of pleasure he would feel at killing Graw and he wasn't scared of this feeling either. In fact, he liked it.

Graw's practice – his doctor's office was a huge gigantic thing, monstrously gothic in appearance, dark on the inside, black windows, doors with strange demonic symbols on the front, and a sulpheric smell around the perimeters of the building. Ace didn't even want to know what Graw did with all that space inside, yet on some level, he was curious.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Ace knew he had to finish Graw fast so he made plans. He found that on Saturday afternoons Graw had the least amount of visitors so that would be Ace's assassination time. How he would do it was simple: break in, kill, get out. But the BKI, whom Ace had seen signs of many times in Purple Heart City, patrolled the area. They came every fifteen minutes to the building, peered inside, and reappeared back out. Ace wasn't sure what the purpose of this was exactly, but he would only have fifteen minutes – less than that even – to kill Graw and get out. Once BKI found out that Graw was dead, they would sound the alarms and most likely close off the gate that separated the rich and poor districts so as to keep the murderer in. Ace would have to cross over to the poor district in record time, and he would have to arrange transportation out of Purple Heart City at once.

The mainland was an hour's ride from Purple Heart by boat. It would be less suspicious than a airplane descending and ascending from the skies, that was for certain. He made arrangements at the docks to have a motor boat ready and waiting for him at all times in a water-garage, to which Ace held the keys to. That was it for his getaway plan. He would have to run fast, but running would be suspicious in itself, so BKI would have some sort of clue as to who the murderer of the esteemed Doctor Graw (at least to the nobility) was.

It couldn't be helped. The Uchihas had ordered him to try to not make the Fire Nation suspicious but sometimes there was simply nothing Ace could do about it. The mission took precedence.

He had his getaway plan, and as for the modus operandi of the murder itself, he would have to use everything he had. He didn't know the fighting capabilities of Doctor Graw, so just in case, he ordered a small pistol from a local weapons dealer, and said he was a courier boy for a customer so the dealer wouldn't be suspicious. Having a pistol and arming himself with his knives, he hid the weapons away on his person and always carried them on himself.

It was a Thursday when he made such plans. Thursday morning. He didn't eat a single bite of food until Saturday morning, when he swallowed three Bisuki pills, which would give him an extra energy boost just in case. He had three Bisaki pills to activate the Bisuki pills, making him a sort of nuclear bomb in terms of energy level. A contingency plan if you will, because he didn't just plan to kill Doctor Graw, he planned to wipe him off the face of the Earth.

On Friday night he had a visitor. Peter Uchiha.

"Come in, sir," Ace said at the door.

"I got your message," Peter said, his voice barely rising to a whisper.

"By tomorrow night Graw will be dead. Is that correct?"

"Yes sir," said Ace. "What is the purpose of this visit?"

"To inform you about Graw's skills and abilities. He is a formidable fighter. I don't want to hear your plans to take him down, because I'm sure you will be successful. You were trained for this kind of occupation, Ace."

"I'm glad you have so much faith in me," said Ace.

"Don't be, if you fail, you will be in a world of pain, understand?"

Ace nodded, "When have I ever failed you, sir?"

"Never, lets keep it that way."

"Of course."

"Where do you want to be picked up?"

"Mainland, on Welshire Avenue in Gawin district."

"As you wish," Peter said and then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a sheathed dagger. "Graw is a master of illusions. This very famous and old artifact will cut through them with ease, as if you were slicing through an orange. I want this back in good condition."

"Understandable, sir," Ace said as he took the dagger. He unsheathed it, revealing a glowing blue blade.

"Be careful with that," warned Peter. "Remember, one hundred percent accuracy on your mission. Anything less is unacceptable."

Ace walked over to the window and sat down on an armchair. "I got it."

"Good." Peter walked out.

_Assassinate. _

Ace slept well that night, free of any doubts, nervousness or fear that would plague rookie assassins, but when he woke up the next morning – on Saturday morning, the day of his assassination – he began to have a little spark of doubt: "What if I am not powerful enough to take out Graw?"

He had never had any doubts about his own ability before; this was a first in his short career as an assassin. He shook his head, climbed into the shower and stood still as scalding hot water poured down over him, cleansing him. Then he swallowed three pills from a white bottle with a few sips of water and waited. He looked outside the window, fully armed, waiting for Graw to pass by. In his hand there was a stopwatch. The timer ticked slowly. He still had three hours of waiting left.

While he waited his thoughts drifted to the dream he had last night: about a horde of bees descending upon him from the skies. In the dream, this was how he lost his left hand, but he wasn't sure because it was just a dream after all, right? Besides, the Uchihas had told him he had lost the hand while on a job, and as for his memories, they had told him it happened to young assassins often, how they would block out their own memories every few years to function better.

He believed it, but still, he had his suspicions. The dream felt too real, like a memory, too familiar, like a movie picture he had already seen. It disturbed him. Ace wondered if it would distract him while performing his mission. That stressed him out, made his heart race and made his belly burn with stress hormones. He took three calming breaths and looked above in the sky at the clouds that drifted slowly by in all sorts of shapes and makes and forms. Fire Country was a wet sort of country, filled with rain and water, which probably hindered their wizards. They didn't have a lot of wizards who could perform fire magic, it was a restricted art, but the wizards who did have that talent were the most formidable warriors in the world.

Ace sighed as he wondered: am I a formidable warrior? He didn't know. He passed his time in this manner, by letting his thoughts run free, but three hours later when Graw walked down the street along with his trademark cane, Ace stood up and made his mind clear of all distractions by focusing on his breath. In, out. He slowly walked out of the room, calm as a clam and composed and silent as a boulder. He went down the stairs and followed Graw at a distance into the rich district. He followed the man up to the market point, and then took a different route – a longer route – to get to the clinic. The building was surrounded by several warehouses, for god knows what purpose, but they were all owned by Graw.

Ace hid behind one of the warehouses and watched carefully as Graw entered the clinic, unlocking the door with a golden key, and disappear inside. Then he waited until the BKI appeared. Two cops, dressed all in red, having pistol side arms sheathed at their waists. They stood outside of the door, one of them went in. Came out five minutes later. Said everything was okay and they ventured on in Ace's direction.

This was it. No going back now.

Ace took out two knives, and hid and waited silently as the two walked by. They didn't even look in his direction, so engrossed they were in their own conversation. Ace leaped up behind them, slit the first man's throat. The other cop's eyes widened in alarm, and reacting quickly, punched Ace in the jaw. Ace fell to the ground and threw the knife before the remaining cop could pull out his gun. The knife hit the man's wrist. Ace leapt up off the ground, pulled out his pistol from his coat pocket and shot three rounds into the cop's chest. His silencer helped his stealth purposes. Then, running to the door quickly, he opened it and entered.

Inside: well lit, three sofas, one desk, an assistant sitting behind a chair with a bright smile on her face. Ace didn't pay any attention to her, didn't bother to kill her. Just asked: "Where's doctor Graw?"

"In his office but is this an important-"

"Thanks," Ace said and went down a hallway, turned right on instinct and ended up in front of a door marked: OFFICE. He turned on the knob, hesitating just a bit before he did so for he had a bad nervous fluttery stomach right about now, and he opened the door. Walking in, he took stock of the room: desk, chair, laptop open, lamp, bookshelf filled with books, a small radio emitting soft classical music.

Behind the desk sat Doctor Graw, skinny, elongated fingers clasped together, one leg folded over the other. "Do I know you?" Graw asked in a cold, crisp voice.

Ace didn't answer. He pulled out his pistol, but before he could pull the trigger, he heard the door shut behind him and he was flung back by an invisible force. He landed on soft moss. Looking around, he saw a forest.

Ace thought: What the hell-? No this is an illusion, remember, Graw's an illusionist. Peter's knife. Where is it?

From the forest came three snakes with rainbow colored markings on their scaly bodies. They slid close to Ace, looping around him in a spiral and hissed menacingly. Ace pulled out the blue knife, which he had sheathed on his ankle and swung at in the air. Instantly the illusion tore apart and he was back in reality, tied up to a chair in an empty warehouse. In front of him stood Graw with a victorious smile on his face.

_Torture. _

Ace woke up in a metal box, or so it seemed. In front of him, the tall and looming and evil figure of Doctor Graw laughed softly. "Are you awake?" The doctor whispered.

Ace blinked, fighting away drowsiness. He knew instantly thanks to his training with the Uchihas in all manner of assassination tricks and secrets that he had been drugged with _inversalis paralysum_. He knew this because of the way he could not feel the tips of his fingers, and the spasms that raced through every muscle in his body. In effect, he was paralyzed and completely at Doctor Graw's mercy. I made a mistake, thought Ace, I underestimated my foe and it has landed me in a seemingly unescapable situation.

He let his eyes roam around the warehouse, looking for anything that might be useful. His search was futile: the warehouse was completely devoid of any objects, and the small square windows ten feet high were shadowed by dirt and grime. In this deserted place, no rescuer of his would find him, and Ace doubted he would even have a rescuer, considering that to the Uchihas failure meant death. They were not in the habit of taking care of their own, so to speak. They were more reptilian in their philosophy than human. Cold and unemotional they were, and they tried to make Ace like them. But Ace was not cold and unemotional, he was hot and fiery, full of emotion, thoughts, and feelings that could not be silenced. And his gut feeling told him two things: Graw was bad, and he was in big trouble.

"Why…" slurred Ace, "Why do you not kill me…?"

Doctor Graw laughed again, and walked around the chair Ace was tied in. His footsteps echoed in the warehouse. "Kill you? So soon? The party's just beginning though, it would be a shame for a would be assassin to miss it."

"I failed my mission," said Ace to the best of his ability. The drug hindered his tongue, making it difficult to talk. However, the tongue is the strongest muscle in the human body, and the drug could make the tongue completely lose its motile functions. "I deserve death, nothing more. So why am I alive?"

"Because you interest me," Graw stated, "You are a mere boy, yet you are powerful and skilled. You broke my illusion with an antique knife that has been thought to be lost for thousands of years. You obviously have had superior training to the other common assassins that have been sent against me over the years, and not only that, but you must also have connections in high places or extraordinary luck in acquiring such a knife in your possession."

"Yeah, its as you say," Ace said. "I'll tell you everything if you promise me a painless and quick death."

"No," said Graw. "You will tell me everything but your death will be slow and painful."

"Why? I'm just a boy, are you so cruel-"

"YES!" shrieked Graw, eyes widening, as he leaned toward Ace so their noses almost touched. "I am crazy, I am cruel, and I will enjoy this!"

Ace said nothing. He hadn't been taught in all his training what to do in a situation like this. He was at his wit's end. Trapped, in danger of torture, he could do nothing but sit and try to get through this as best as he could. He would die soon enough, he just had to wait it out.

"Let's start, shall we?" Graw said. "You stay here – its not as if you can move anyways. You see, I've strapped you with a wire thin rope made of diamond that will inhibit your chakra. You can't use your magic, boy assassin. So escape is impossible. Now just sit tight, I will be back soon with my tools."

Doctor Graw walked out and slammed the door of the warehouse. Ace heard keys turning in locks, and a click. Ace deduced he was locked in alone. He tried to concentrate and prepare himself for the torture awaiting him by calming his racing heart down to rhythmic beats, for the drug made his heart pump erratically. He slowed his breath, counted to ten, and thought of his dreams, his favorite experiences. He thought of a dessert, vast and endless, and the suns shining hot and beautiful on his face as he trudged through the sand.

In a short while, Graw returned. Ace cracked open his eyes to slits and watched Graw carry a leather briefcase toward him. He set it down on the floor, and opened it revealing a glistening array of metal tools, thin like wires, sharp and piercing, some rounded, some straight as arrows, all made for cutting and causing pain. On the other side of the briefcase were rows and rows of little bottles containing different coloured liquids, some purple, some green, some turquoise like the Ocean.

Graw grinned, showing pearly white teeth, and took out a small bottle containing golden liquid. "This, my good friend the boy assassin, is the exiler of life. It will keep you alive for as long as I want you to be alive. Regardless of the torture I put you through, you will live, healthy and in tip top condition and ready for more pain. This will not be over soon."

Ace gulped in his throat, gulping down acidic vomit and bile. His eyes felt heavy, his mouth tasted bad, and his legs cramped. Heart racing, stress increasing. Ace was terrified, more so than he had ever been in his life. Understandable. Under the face of an eternity of torture even the bravest of the brave would be scared.

"Are you ready, boy?" asked Graw. "Tell me, what's your name?"

Ace didn't answer him. Graw's face flushed, "So utterly disrespectful. Very well, I will teach you respect." He took out another bottle containing green liquid, and opened the cap. Grey smoke rose up in the air like billows. Graw turned his face away from the smoke, yet pointed the bottle to Ace.

Ace felt the smoke pierce through his skin as if a thousand needles poked him. He screamed, he couldn't help but screaming in this sort of intense pain, what felt like his every nerve was on fire.

Tears rolled down his eyes as the torture continued.

"I'm not done yet," said Graw. "I'll never be done. I'll keep coming here, every day for a little visit. We are going to enjoy our time together."

_Breakdown. _

_I need to find a reason to live this way! I'm running out of patience and my life is over… _Ace thought as pain filled his wrecked and weak body day and night. He got no rest. The exiler kept him alive but only by a thread. He was just a boy now, suffering constantly and living with no reason, no purpose, to undergo this torture. You left me… Ace thought to himself, referring to his very identity, his very being as memories passed by him. Images flashed through his eyes, fast as if one were flipping a deck of cards. Ace saw his life as if he were seeing a movie and it scared him, it frustrated him, it gave him no solace from the pain inflicted by Dr. Graw. No, just keep going, keep breathing, in, out, that was all Ace could do. Trapped, hysterical, the brainwashing that he underwent through the Uchihas came falling down like a tower of bricks.

I am…

Naruto…

Uzumaki…

Of Konoha!

His identity was back, like a breath of fresh air he found his reason. He found his very being, who he really was: Naruto Uzumaki: Future Hokage.

Rassuel.

Eva.

Two of them, his first and best friends, dead. He felt sad. He felt angry. At who?

Doctor Graw came in.

Naruto was enraged by his face, by his presence, those immaculate clothes sickened him.

Anger rose within his chest, making it hard to breathe as the Kyuubi's energy came pouring out of Naruto in waves. "You! I'll kill you!" he yelled, and then he charged, the Kyuubi's power easily breaking through his chains. He got up and ripped out Graw's throat with his fingernails, which had turned as sharp as claws. Graw uttered a choked scream before blood spilt out of his torn throat on the floor of the warehouse.

The Uchihas took Eva.

They did this to him.

Naruto panted hard as the Kyuubi's power rolled off him like tidal waves. Now what?

Kill.

Kill!

Murder!

Uchiha! 

The Kyuubi's voice in his mind again. He could hear it whispering to him, telling him what to do, and now he didn't care because he wanted revenge too. For Eva.

For Rassuel.

More so, he wanted to go back to Konoha, back to his home. He didn't like the future very much. He hated the future. The Kyuubi told him things as he escaped the warehouse and began a long journey to the Uchiha District.

The Kyuubi told him how to get back to his home, and he listened well.

---

Alex Wong and Princess Nomi were found dead on a tropical island three days after they had been murdered by the dragon by a group of pirates who paid them no attention.

The dragon itself grew and thrived on that island, and when the time was right, it journeyed toward Naruto, as if he followed a compass or a tracking device.

---

Naruto reached the gates of the Uchiha District by sundawn.

They opened for him, thinking he was back. All knew him as the boy assassin.

Red eyes.

Anger.

Hatred.

How to do this?

A call from the sky! The dragon swooped down toward Naruto and sat on his shoulder. Naruto looked into the dragon's pearly diamond white eyes and they communicated mentally. The dragon wished him luck and gave him a gift, a chain to be worn on the neck. At the end of the chain was a tiny dragon egg.

"Thank you." Naruto told the dragon, and the dragon flew away.

Naruto called up the images of Rassuel and Eva in his mind, fuelling his immense ocean sized anger. He started glowing like a light bulb. Red light. Kyuubi energy.

Tails came.

One.

Two.

Panic.

Uchihas screaming. Running.

Three tails.

Naruto stood immobile.

Four tails.

The Uchiha army came, six hundred in all, ready to do battle.

Five tails.

Too much energy unleashed for the Uchihas to come any closer.

Six tails. Buildings around Naruto began to fall.

Seven.

Eight.

Running away.

Nine tails.

Explosion.

Naruto opened his eyes, and the face of Sarutobi Hokage looked down on him. "Are you alright?" asked the aged Hokage.

"Where am I?"

"You're in the hospital, Naruto. How do you feel?"

Naruto groaned and closed his eyes, drifting off into dream world.

Last thoughts –

'Was that a dream?'

Rassuel's face. Too real. Too pristine, too detailed.

Eva's face. Too emotional.

The dragon pendant rested heavily on his neck, he could feel it. When he moved his left hand – which seemed strange since he had thought his left hand was gone - to clasp it, there was nothing there.

Perhaps this whole adventure had been a dream, but somehow, Naruto knew there was a hint of reality intermixed within. He also knew that even though it could have been a dream – which he really doubted – he would never forget Rassuel and Eva's faces.

They were after all, his two best friends, even in death.

The End.

AN: Wow, finally done. I finished this novel in little more than a month. But I know I can do better than this. Be on the lookout for my next work.

-Tridentwatch, from Jan 1, 2008 to Feb 6, 2008.


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